


Alternate

by Briana_Dubs



Category: Ant-Man (Movies), Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate 2012 timeline, Endgame AU, F/M, Found Family, M/M, Not Age of Ultron Compliant, everything happens very fast after the 2012 avengers, loki is angry about how he was treated and he has every right to be honestly, neither does vision, rated for lots and lots of swearing at this point, scarlet witch does not exist in this timeline, semi-dark world compliant, should i tag this as slow burn because tony and loki still havent even hugged
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-11
Updated: 2020-01-27
Packaged: 2020-02-29 18:51:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 31
Words: 42,538
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18784105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Briana_Dubs/pseuds/Briana_Dubs
Summary: Thor noticed something terrible. Loki was gone. Thor jumped to his feet, spinning around and shouting his brother’s name, but it was over. Loki vanished. And judging by the very empty briefcase sitting a ways across the lobby floor, he had taken the Tesseract with him. “Shit.”Tesseract Alternate Timeline. Loki takes the cube, what happens next?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Look, I'm not gonna lie. I hated Endgame. The writing was trash. Absolute trash. You're gonna explain time travel and then break ALL the rules you just set for yourself??  
> AND YOU'RE GONNA TELL ME JARVIS DOESN'T SEE THE OTHER TONY IN THE TOWER???? Boi.  
> And don't even get me started on Thor. My boy was suffering PTSD and they made fun of him.
> 
> But at least they gave me the opportunity to write a new timeline.

It had all happened so fast. One minute things were going swimmingly- they had Loki, they had the cube, Cap was taking the scepter to the SHIELD agents, and they were all going to go have lunch. The next minute was disaster. A horrible jolt of electricity and then his body shut down. Tony fell to the ground, in agony, and when Thor asked him what was wrong, he couldn’t even force his mouth to open and make a sound. He just lay there on the ground, twitching helplessly.

“I’m going to try something, okay? I have no idea if this is gonna work,” Thor said, lifting his hammer from his side and placing it atop the center of his chest. Somewhere in the back of his mind Tony was aware that the director of SHIELD what’s his face was speaking to him too. And then a small sparkle of electricity and he took in a massive gulp of air.

The smile that spread across Thor’s face was wonderful. He laughed, cheered, and turned to the people beside him on the ground. “I had no idea if that would work,” he told them, beaming like a happy child.

And then Tony asked about the case and Thor noticed something terrible. Loki was gone. Thor jumped to his feet, spinning around and shouting his brother’s name, but it was over. Loki vanished. And judging by the very empty briefcase sitting a ways across the lobby floor, he had taken the Tesseract with him.

“Shit.” 

* * *

 Let it be known that Tony Stark does not like hospitals. He hates having strangers poke and prod at him and tell him how unsafe it was having the reactor embedded in his chest. Like he didn’t already know. It wasn’t like he had chosen to put it there!

But after three near death experiences in one day, even he felt it was for the best to go in and get looked at.

Pepper and Rhodey were both with him, thankfully. It made it a little more bearable to have some old guy with funny glasses putting a stethoscope around the magnet in his sternum. Both were distracted, of course, as everyone else was. Loki, the crazy demigod who just tried to take over an entire planet, was loose with the weapon he had used to send an alien army into New York City. Agents from every secret organization on the globe were swarming every inch of Stark Tower and essentially stalking the entire team.

He was just about to sign a paper when the ear piece he kept in to stay in touch with JARVIS booted to life. “Sir,” his artificial intelligence, who technically had no emotions, sounded worried. “Sir, I have footage from Loki’s escape.”

“Awesome, Jay, what is it?” He ignored the confused look from the doctor, waving him away and motioning Rhodey over to him. Rhodey made a physical wall between him and the doctor.

“It… Sir, I think it would be best if you gathered the entire team together and viewed it.”

“Jarv?”

It took a moment before JARVIS replied. “There’s… Something is very wrong.”

He glanced up at his best friend. Rhodey cocked his head to one side, confused and concerned for his friend. He only heard one half of the conversation, and Tony hadn’t said much. “How wrong, Jay?” Tony asked, finally looking away from Rhodey.

“I believe what happened to you in the lobby was no accident, sir.”

“Shit.”


	2. Chapter 2

Getting everyone together to review footage was easy enough. He told them JARVIS caught something when Loki vanished, and everyone and their spy assigned to watch them wanted to know all they could about how Loki got away.

Natasha and Clint sat together, Rogers to their right, Thor directly beside him. Banner was pacing behind the couch. Pepper and Rhodey both stood by Tony’s side. Tony had only allowed Fury in to view the footage under the express condition that no other agents come in with him and he remove his recording equipment. (Spoiler alert: there was a lot.) Tony stood on his own, fidgeting as JARVIS pulled up several video files.

“Shall I start from the beginning, sir? Or the clip we discussed?” the AI asked.

“What’s the beginning?” Clint asked. “I thought this was just footage of Loki getting the cube and leaving?”

Tony sighed, running his fingers over his face. “Jarv says… there’s more. He thinks…” He had to take a moment to breathe. “He thinks that whatever happened with my reactor wasn’t an accident. Someone made it happen.”

“Loki?” Fury asked, leaning forward from where he sat to the side. “But he was in chains and you said they weakened him.” He looked to Thor then.

“They dampened his magic, yes,” Thor said in reply, “But my brother was a trained fighter just as myself and is dangerous no matter the situation. Our mother taught him stealth and trained him in his craft of seidr.” He had a somber look on his face then. “Even shackled, Loki is not to be underestimated.”

“Great,” Rhodey huffed and crossed his arms. Pepper only glanced at him and looked back at Thor.

JARVIS spoke up again, then. “If I may,” he said, “I do not believe Loki had anything to do with this.”

Now everyone’s attention was on the screen. They all watched their entourage walk out of the elevator without a problem. Everything was going fine until they got to Alexander Pierce. To all of them, it seemed that when Pierce touched Tony, that was when things went wrong. He placed his hand on him and Tony tried to push through and then he collapsed.

“Pierce did this?” Fury asked, frowning. He seemed to be about to say more, but then to the amazement of everyone in the room, the case that held the Tesseract, that had fallen to Tony’s side, seemed to fly across the room all on its own. It went flying to another SHIELD agent who quickly picked it up and moved away with it, before getting slammed by the Hulk and sent sprawling onto his back. The case cracked open upon impact, the cube flew out, and landed just beside Loki’s foot. Loki bent down, picked it up, and was gone.

“What the actual fuck!?” Clint shouted.

“Tony, what the hell was that?” Bruce asked, motioning widely with his hand. “The case moved by itself!”

“The cube can’t do that, can it?” Pepper asked, turning to Thor.

Thor began to answer, but Tony wasn’t looking at them or listening to his words. JARVIS was rewinding. And rewinding. And zooming in. And. And… Everyone fell silent.

“Jesus Christ,” Cap whispered, standing up.

There, frozen on screen, running and kicking the case away from Tony, was a man. A very, very tiny man, but a man nonetheless. The camera focus remained on him as the rewound and watched where he came from. Slowly, inch by inch, the tiny man retreated back closer and closer toward the Tony lying on the floor. Finally, JARVIS paused on the shot of the tiny man crawling out from under Tony’s shirt.

“Oh my God,” Now Pepper had covered her mouth, eyes wide with the fear and the realization.

Rhodey stomped forward. “Who the hell is this guy? This guy nearly killed Tony! Why doesn’t SHIELD know about this?”

Fury, bless him, looked as startled as the rest of them for a brief moment before his face fell into a stoic mask as per usual. Rhodey was still scowling at him all the same.

“Who,” he spat, “Is this guy?”

“Sir,” JARVIS interrupted them again, zooming in on the SHIELD agent that had picked up the case after the tiny man kicked it his way. “Sir.”

Natasha finally stood up. “You have got to be kidding me,” she said, voice little more than a whisper.

Oh no. The footage didn’t lie. There, on screen, standing plain as day in a SHIELD agent’s uniform, was Tony Stark. At the same moment Tony Stark was lying on the ground going into cardiac arrest. There were two.

“Two Tonys,” Pepper breathed. Then she inhaled sharply and proceeded to repeat the action multiple times, going into a panic attack. “Two Tonys and one of them just tried to kill the other!” Rhodey and Cap both quickly helped her to sit down, holding her shoulders, and trying to soothe her. (Didn’t exactly work since they themselves were also freaking out.)

“Oh my God, Tony!” Pepper shrieked after a moment. “Tony, what the hell is going on!? First you jump in a wormhole and then your heart stops and now this!?” Rhodey tried to calm her. She put her hand to her forehead. “Oh, God, I’m going to have an aneurism. Oh my God.”

Tony felt like he couldn’t breathe. Everyone had seen it. He wasn’t crazy. There, staring as he convulsed on the floor, was himself. Or, another version of himself. Oh, this was so fucked.


	3. Chapter 3

Turns out, another Tony wasn’t the worst of their problems. As they all sat and reviewed the footage, going over everything again and again for hours and hours, they found there was also another Steve. When asked about it, the Steve in the room with them had said he thought it was Loki at the time. Clearly not, as JARVIS had video footage of Loki in an elevator shaft surrounded by SHIELD agents at the exact moment that Steve encountered his other self.

And on top of that, the other Steve stole the scepter. Fury had called immediately asking about the scepter, making sure it was secure, but Hill herself told him she had eyes on it, that Cap had handed it to her himself, and that everything appeared fine with it. So the Cap duplicate stole the scepter, but then returned it? That didn’t make sense.

Tony had JARVIS play the footage of when the scepter was taken and the audio from inside that elevator had everyone’s hair standing on end. The words, “Hail Hydra” slipped past the Cap clone’s lips and Fury was calling Hill again. Everyone in that elevator was to be placed in holding cells until further notice. The whole organization may have been compromised. That was a terrifying thought all on its own.

Watching the footage it was clear that the other Tony had meant to steal the Tesseract in that moment, but failed when the Hulk emerged from the stairwell. He had bailed immediately after that moment, and none of them knew where he had gone.

It was also clear that the Tony duplicate had planted the tiny man on his other self. He had been told by the small man to flick him, and he sent him flying onto their Tony. And then they had waited for their perfect moment to nearly kill Tony. “Mild” had been the word the second Tony used for what happened. Didn’t really feel mild at the time, but sure, he lived.

“I do not understand,” Thor said after a long while of everyone just watching and rewatching footage. “Did they return the scepter after failing to retrieve the Tesseract?”

“It would appear so,” JARVIS said. “The second Rogers hands the scepter to agent Hill moments after his disappearance after the fight with our Captain Rogers.”

“So they needed both stones,” Natasha said, frowning. “For what?”

Rhodey groaned. “Dude, after everything that’s happened today, I was really hoping we could just relax and go home. I wasn’t ready for all this extra shit.”

Still pacing behind the couch, Bruce made a scoffing noise at that comment. Clint only glanced at Rhodey and he and Nat shared a moment where they both seemed to communicate without moving a muscle. “Why was it just you two?” Bruce finally asked. “Why not any of us? Why were there only clones of you two?”

“No, no, no,” Tony stopped him. “Jay, pause there.” The footage froze on frame of his other self. “Look at my hair!” He pointed a pencil that he had chewed to hell and back at the screen. “Look at how gray my hair is!” Natasha and Clint rolled their eyes, but Pepper sat up and Fury swore under his breath.

“I’m _older_ ,” Tony hissed. “This is another me from the future!”

“So you’re saying you just figured out time travel?” Steve asked, scowling like an unhappy teacher, “So you could send the two of us back in time to steal Loki’s weapons?”

Tony groaned. “Look, I don’t know _why_ we came back for them, but that is clearly a much older Tony Stark, so yes, I am saying we figured out time travel!”

“None of this makes any goddamned sense,” Clint murmured, lowering his head into his hands. “I’m so goddamn tired, I don’t even understand what’s happening right now.”

“Clint’s right,” Natasha said then. Tony whispered a quiet ‘of course he is’ under his breath, but she continued on. “We’re not going to get anywhere with this if none of us are properly functioning.” She stood back up after having sat some time ago to watch footage. “We need sleep. A proper night’s rest. Once we’ve all slept on this, we can regroup. Discuss our options. Figure out what’s going on here.” When no one said anything, she looked at them all. “Agreed?”

“Agreed,” Fury grumbled first, followed one after the other by everyone else. They all started shuffling out of the tower then, with the exceptions of Bruce, Rhodey, Pepper, and Thor. Thor and Bruce had nowhere else to go, and Rhodey and Pepper refused to go anywhere else.

Pulling Tony toward his bedroom, the two of them ignored his protests. “We know you, Tony,” Rhodey said, “You won’t sleep if we leave you on the promise you will.”

“I gotta keep looking all this over,” he argued.

“Tony,” Pepper stopped, turning to face him now. “I almost lost you today. More than once. Right now I just want to lie down, hold you in my arms, and know that you’re real.”

And, really, who was he to argue with that?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *blows a kiss to the writers of Endgame* I'm better than u


	4. Chapter 4

Thor, the next morning, had said he needed a moment to communicate with his father and Asgard. He said his father had spoken to him that morning and so Tony took him to the roof and sat with him as he spoke to someone called Heimdall.

“Loki is gone. Strange forces are at work, Heimdall. There are clones of ourselves running around causing havoc. I know not what to do…” He sighed, dropping his head. “Truly, I believe there is still good in Loki, but… I just wish I had father’s council. He would know what to do. Or perhaps mother.” Tony smiled a little and patted him on the back. “Really, anything would be nice,” he said.

“Hey guy in the sky,” Tony said, “Don’t know if you can hear me too.”

“He can.”

“Thanks, buddy.” Tony gave him another pat. “If you could, maybe keep an eye out and let us know if you see Loki anywhere? It’s kinda difficult to send out a search party when the guy you’re looking for is an alien with a magic teleportation box.”

There was no reply. Tony had no clue if the eye in the sky could talk to them, or just watch and listen. Nothing happened...

“It is a stone,” Thor said then.

“A stone?”

The thunder god nodded. “The Tesseract is an infinity stone. It is one of six. Father and mother told us stories of them growing up.” He held up his hand, pointing at each finger as he listed them off. “The Time Stone, the Power Stone, Reality, Mind, Soul, and the Tesseract is the Space stone.” He used his thumb from his other hand for the Tesseract.

“I’m guessing they all have powers relating to their names, then?”

“Yes,” Thor replied. “The Tesseract allows the user to travel through space or, if used properly, open a portal in space to allow others to travel.” Tony nodded. He had seen that with his own eyes. “The portals usually do not last long, however. At least, that’s what my father had told me. Only someone more powerful than Titans would be able to keep a portal open for extended time on their own.”

“Which is why Loki had to steal Selvig to build his own device, got it.” Tony was doing so much mental math in his head. “So what happens if someone has all six?”

“Father said they had the power of the Norns if that were the case.”

“Norns?”

Thor shook his head. “Doesn’t matter. Essentially, if someone got their hands on all six stones they would have the power to destroy the universe and re-create it all in the span of one breath.”

“Cheerful,” Tony said, huffing. “Is the scepter one of those stones?”

Thor’s brows furrowed for a moment at the question before realization slapped across his face. He was scrambling to his feet and dragging Tony to the elevator with him before Tony could even gather his wits. They were about to pay a visit to SHIELD. 

* * *

To say Fury was angry was an understatement. Thor had basically confiscated the scepter the second he arrived and he refused to let anyone but Tony take it. He used the footage as sound reasoning for being suspicious. How could they know if Hydra agents weren’t trying to get their hands on it every minute of every day?

It was an argument Fury couldn’t argue with. The men from the elevator? Yeah, they were Hyrda agents. Clone Cap had been right. Which was terrifying.

How did future Cap find out they were Hyrda? What happened to reveal them? Tony wasn’t exactly sure he wanted to know.

So, Thor handed him the scepter and said he had every reason to believe the stone in it was actually the mind stone and then went into a long explanation to Fury what that meant. (The whole thing took forever.)

“All right, but if you don’t mind my asking,” Fury said, calm even though he looked pissed as hell, “Why do you trust Stark with this thing?”

Thor puffed his chest out at that. “Stark saved us all!” He shouted proudly. “He had no way of knowing whether he would come out of that portal alive, but he still went! That is bravery! That is dedication! I would trust him with my life!” And wasn’t that sweet to hear?

Placing a hand on his shoulder, Tony offered the thunderer a smile. “I’m touched, big guy.”

Thor was officially in Tony’s good books.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Loki will be back soon, don't worry. For now we just have more Thor missing his baby bro.

And now Thor was living with him. All right, cool, that’s fine. Totally fine. Tony has no problem with Thor hanging around. Absolutely no issues at all. Well, maybe one or two broken coffee makers and a dented toaster, but that was fine. Really, it was okay. Tony was happy to have Thor around. And hey, if he and Pepper both stopped just to stare at him every now and then, who could blame them?

Thor knew a hell of a lot more about the Infinity Stone things than he did, anyway. It helped when he tried to research it to have some of his input. Even if most of said input was remembered from stories he was told at bedtime. (Which sometimes he would remember stories that reminded him of Loki and then Thor got all weepy, and honestly Tony had no idea how to handle that.)

Asgard couldn’t bring him back, apparently. He said his father had used so much energy to bring him here in the first place that he had fallen asleep or something like that. He said it would probably be weeks or months even before Odin could bring him home. And even then he might not leave. He felt like Earth was the best place to find Loki again. Something about Loki not being welcome back in Asgard.

Currently, Tony was sitting with Thor, both sharing sandwiches and drinking lightly. “So,” Tony said around a mouthful of bread and meat, “If you did manage to take Loki home, what woulda happened?” Thor frowned for a moment at the question, so Tony rolled his shoulders and tried to act nonchalant. “Not that it’s any of my business, but I’m not too fond of the whole torture idea. Even for somebody like him.”

Now Thor looked surprised. “But you said he threw you from the rooftop!”

“Out the window, but close enough.”

“You would not seek revenge?” Thor asked, resting his massive forearms on Tony’s nice glass table on the balcony. “You would not wish for the joy of making him suffer?”

Tony tried not to let it show how uncomfortable the question made him. “I’ve had my share of revenge,” he mumbled. When Thor only looked more confused, he sighed and set his half eaten food down. “Look, Thor,” he began, “I was… _I_ was tortured, okay?” Thor blinked in shock. “After I escaped I killed all the people who hurt me, but… Yeah, I guess at the time it felt great, but looking back on it I wish I had stopped myself, you know? Maybe not sunken to their level?” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Looking back on it, I just feel icky.”

“It weighs on your conscious…”

And didn’t that hit the nail on the head? All the people his weapons had killed? He had never been directly involved. But those men? The men who kidnapped him and tormented him for months? They died by his hand. He took their lives himself. It was… frankly a horrible feeling. Yeah, justice was a wonderful feeling. And knowing they would never hurt anyone else was great. But… Knowing he had stooped to the level of petty murderers and thieves made Tony feel like he didn’t deserve to make it out of that cave in the first place.

Seeming to notice his foul mood, Thor smiled a little then. “Well, fear not, Stark. No matter how angry father may have been at Loki, mother would never have allowed any harm to come to him.” He laughed then and chomped into his sandwich. “He probably would be thrown into the most comfortable cell in the dungeons!”

“That’s not exactly cheerful, buddy.” 

* * *

Tony invited Jane to the tower to see Thor.

She slapped him across the face.

Twice.

And then she kissed him and screamed at him for being gone for so long. Tony was snickering as he hid in the corner of the room and watched the whole thing go down.

Thor looked like a kicked puppy. Who knew someone with muscles bigger than his head could get bossed around so easily by a lady as short as he was?!

Halfway through watching her scold him, Rhodey called, so Tony took his leave and talked with his best friend. No news on the Loki front. No one had any idea where he was. Bruce, using military equipment, hadn’t gotten any signals of the Tesseract’s energy signature. For all they knew, Loki wasn’t on this planet anymore.

Wouldn’t surprise Tony if he wasn’t. He sure as hell wouldn’t stick around if he was Loki. He’d go somewhere far, far away and never come back. (He would go some place nice and warm with a nice big glass of booze and sleep the days away.)

“Well, at least you guys are trying,” Tony said, huffing, “SHIELD has done nothing but nag me and hover over my shoulder while I study the scepter.” He raised his hands and wiggled his fingers as he said in a mocking voice, “How’s the progress, Tony? Do you have the stone yet, Tony? Why can’t you give us the scepter back Tony? We can send a whole team to help you, Tony.” He dropped his hands. “I swear, I haven’t been so sick of my own name in all my life.”

“Well there was that one girl at MIT.”

“Okay, this is the _second_ most sick of my name I’ve been in my life.”

“Better,” Rhodey teased, grinning at him over the video feed. His smiled fell pretty fast though. “How are you, anyway, Tones? Pepper’s been telling me you’re not sleeping.”

Tony groaned at the question. “I’m fine!” He deflected fast, but Rhodey had known him for over a decade now. He was not fooled. “Look, it’s okay. It just… I just… There’s been a lot going on, okay? Every time I sleep I.. I see that wormhole again, but this time I don’t make it out.”

Rhodey’s eyes shone with sadness. “Tony,” his voice was soft as he said his name. “Tony, you need to talk to us about this. We can help you.”

“You know I can’t do that,” Tony argued back. “I couldn’t even tell you guys I was dying, how am I supposed to talk to you about my bad dreams?”

“Like this, I guess,” Rhodey said. “Look, even if you’re mad or if you’re ashamed of it, you can’t keep this bottled in, Tones. This is basically PTSD. I see it often enough here… You need to see a professional. Someone to talk to.”

“You just told me to talk to you and Pep.”

“And you should,” Rhodey said, “I stand by that. But you can’t dump everything on us. Just… don’t leave us out this time, kay?” He offered a small smile. “I gotta go, Tones, but I’ll call again soon. Be safe. Drink some water and eat a salad once in a while, would ya?”

“Fuck you, I’ll eat a salad in hell.”

With a chuckle, Rhodey said his goodbye.

By the time Tony got back to Thor and Jane, they were making out on the couch. He turned and walked to his room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So apparently Iron Man 3 took place only 6 months after the first Avengers. I don't know why but when I saw it I had pictured a year. It's weird what you find out when you google Marvel things... Like stuff about the Kree and Skrulls? Forget it. That's a confusing Pandora's Box I won't even try to touch. 
> 
>  
> 
> (((I just saw an article today that the Endgame writers aren't impressed by fan theories and AUs of Endgame. HA! Good. Now you know how I felt watching your movie, boys.)))


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thor loves his baby brother so much, you guys.

Five months. Five months is how long it took before he finally broke the casing on the stone in the scepter. He had nothing to put it into, but he had it out. Thor had mumbled about Loki being able to pull from his pockets (And seriously what the hell did that even mean??) and being able to get a vessel that would have been perfect for it to go in. (Tony silently wondered why the stone was yellow when it had been blue in the casing, but Thor said it was just the case itself that was the blue color. He said that each stone was supposed to be a different color.)

For now the mind stone was sitting on top of Mjolnir because it kept eating through every other surface they put it on. If Thor needed the hammer, they would just put it on some of his Asgardian armor and hope for the best.

Even the case the Tesseract had been in wasn’t enough for this one. It was weird.

Speaking of weird, Jane and her friends had taken up residence in the tower along with Thor. Rhodey kept joking that Tony had a little family now. Tony told him that he never pictured a crazy old man with a distaste for wearing pants in his future family. (Thanks for that, Selvig.)

He was trying to get better. He was seeing a therapist, but things between him and Pepper were getting strained. He was trying to keep the relationship together, but with all the searching for Loki, and thinking up reasons for his future self to have tried to kill him, and testing the stone, and building for the company, and her running the company, and now the Avengers popping up when help was needed, it was hard. He had a feeling it wouldn’t last. And it made him feel like such a failure.

He sat alone in the penthouse, staring into an untouched glass of scotch he had poured for himself three hours ago, thinking about Pepper.

He hadn’t expected a visitor. Certainly not Jane’s friend Darcy. (Honestly Darcy kind of scared him sometimes. She was just a little… unhinged.)

When she sat down next to him, he flinched a little bit.

“Hey dude,” she greeted, “Whatchya doin’?” Tony only shrugged in reply.

Humming and kicking her legs back and forth, Darcy looked around the room. “I like your dangly thingy over there,” she said, pointing off at an art piece.

“Pepper bought that,” Tony said, voice quiet.

“Well it’s cute. She’s got good taste.”

“Yeah… Yeah, she does.”

Darcy sat there in silence for another moment before groaning loudly, grabbing the glass from his hands, and downing the drink herself. “There, geeze, now stop moping and go build something! You’re always like this when you’re sad!” He tried to argue, but she yanked him to his feet. “Look tough guy, I’m sure you’ve got relationship problems. That’s always why guys get like this, but you’re driving me nuts! Go down into your little dungeon and build a robot and come back up when you’ve decided if you’re gonna break up with her or not!!”

She shoved him and Tony stumbled backwards, staring at her in shock.

“That was… actually really insightful,” he said.

“I’ve been listening to your audio diary.”

“Aaaannnd we’re done. Bye Darcy!” 

* * *

Pepper broke things off with him, in the end. He just couldn’t work up the nerve. But the split was calm, easy, and they both said they still cared about each other.

“I just… With everything that’s happened, still happening, actually,” Pepper said, “I don’t see how it’s gonna work. We never see each other anymore. We’re living two completely separate lives and it’s not fair to either of us to try and add one more pressure on top of everything else.”

Tony had agreed.

Tony had cried.

Thor took him to a bar, they got drunk (Thor drank about six times as much as Tony did), and Thor carried Tony in his arms for three blocks.

When they were both back in the tower, giggling and laughing and trying not to burp or puke, Thor gave Tony a big pat on the back. “Oh, that was wonderful!” He exclaimed, “I have not had a night of merriment like that in ages!” he sighed then, rubbing at his nose. “It’s almost like being with Loki… Before everything… Well, you know…”

Tony pouted. And he thought. And thought. “No, actually,” he hiccupped, “I don’t think you ever told me what happened with Loki. He wasn’t always crazy?”

“No, not at all,” Thor said, swaying a little bit. “In fact, he was very much like you!” He pointed at Tony, smiling. “You remind me of him so much, Stark. Brilliant, arrogant… mischievous…” His face fell as he spoke. Now he was looking down at his hands. He inhaled and exhaled slowly and loudly.

“It’s my fault this happened.”

“Whaddyou mean?”

Thor shook his head. “If I had just been a better brother to him… Listened to him more… None of this would have happened. Loki would never have found out he was Jotun. He never would have gone mad. Never would have… fallen…”

Tony reached a wobbly hand over to rub Thor’s back. “You didn’t know,” he said.

“No, but I should have!” Thor said, openly crying now. “Looking back on it, I see just what a fool I was.” He laughed bitterly. “Norns, how did I convince myself he was happy? How did I truly believe things were all right?”

“Hindsight is twenty-twenty,” Tony whispered. “There’s lots of things we all wish we could do differently, Thor. But we don’t get do-overs.” (Or they shouldn't get do-overs. Future Tony proved that one.)

Thor continued to weep. He held his hands open, loose on his knees, and sobbed. “I just wish I could tell him I’m sorry.” He wiped at his nose again. “I never meant for any of this…”

“He’ll always be my brother.”

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey, so uh... it's not gonna be for a while, but stucky is coming into this story.  
> I wasn't gonna, just because I've never been the best at writing steve or very fond of him. but, damnit, they're in love, and they're gonna be together. Disney and marvel can kiss my ass, they're gay.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm stuck at work literally all day today, so I figured I'd post before I don't get to later. (And all day tomorrow. Yay for sales...)
> 
> So, yeah.. Tada! Hank Pym!

Tony hardly ever saw Steve or Bruce anymore. He had offered for them to come stay with him, offered for Bruce to come back actually, but they turned him down. He saw Natasha and Clint every time Fury came to call, but the visits were never really friendly. (He was most sad about Bruce. He liked the guy. He was a nerd.)

So it seemed like his company was going to be Thor, Jane, Darcy and Selvig mostly for a while longer. The latter three often went out and did their own thing, though. Usually it was just Tony and Thor hanging out together in the tower.

They got along surprisingly well. (Though sometimes Tony blamed that on what Thor had said about him being like Loki. Thor knew how to deal with someone like him pretty well.) Sure, they had their tiffs, but Thor was often too worried about hurting him to really let their fights get out of hand. Saving his life after the other Tony had tiny man try to kill him made Thor realize just how fragile he was. (That in itself often caused fights, though.)

It was in the middle of one of these little fights that Tony got a call from Steve. “Fury’s found something,” he said, “In SHIELD’s archives.”

“Found what about what? I need details, Rogers.”

“There was a man who used to work for SHIELD who was testing technology that would allow humans to shrink down to microscopic levels and survive. And from what Fury won’t tell me- I’d say he was successful.”

Tony’s hand tightened on his phone.  Steve spoke once more.

“We have our Ant Man.” 

* * *

Hank Pym was… Not what Tony was expecting. He didn’t have the same build as the man in the footage. He was old. He had a daughter. He didn’t really seem the type to try and kill a billionaire inventor. (Tony figured maybe he would have JARVIS run facial scans to see if that man had ever gone through his tower before. Or maybe had a criminal record… Never know what future Tony was thinking or who he was going to hire.)

So, instead of charging in with accusations about attempted murder, Tony went in with a different tactic.

“How well guarded are your suits, Doctor?” He asked, sitting down before Fury’s agents could even say a word.

Pym looked surprised. He sat at the interrogation table with a cup of coffee in his hand, courtesy of Tony, and a box of donuts in front of him, also courtesy of Tony. “My suits?” He repeated. When Tony only nodded, he smiled. “I’m surprised someone like you would care about my work, Mister Stark.”

Tony smirked then. “What, just because I have my own suit that means I can’t be interested in other kinds?” Fury’s agent was frowning at him and trying to interrupt, but Tony quickly touched a finger to their lips. “Shh, shh, shh the scientists are talking now.”

Turning back to Pym, he asked, “So, how’s it work? The suit? I’m assuming you have some sort of variable control so that no random nobody can just use your suits whenever they want.” He bit into a donut of his own. “Correct me if I’m wrong.”

Sipping his coffee, Pym laughed a little. “Oh, no, you’re not wrong. I call them Pym Particles. You need them to be able to use the suits properly. I won’t get into the details of it here, but without them you either don’t shrink at all, or only parts of you shrink.” He smiled over the rim of his coffee cup. “It’s a bit of a messy process.”

“Oh, I can imagine,” Tony said. “But, you _do_ keep them in a guarded location, correct? Not just anyone can get to your suits?”

“Well, actually,” he said, “Currently I only have one functioning suit. I’ve… been building another one, but it’s nowhere near finished.”

“Ah, I see….. So…” Tony tapped his donut on the table a few times, getting crumbs all over it, and hummed. “So, would you say you’ve kept a close eye on this suit, then?”

“Oh, absolutely. I keep it locked away at all times. It’s very safe.”

“Huh,” Tony sounded. Nodding his head a few times again and chewing his lip for a moment, he finally spoke again. “Well, that’s interesting.”

“How so, Mister Stark?”

“Well, it’s probably got nothing to do with you, _but_ someone using tech strikingly similar to yours recently tried to kill me.”

Hank Pym’s face paled. He knocked his cup off the table and scrambled to his feet. When he spoke next, he was screaming. “What!?!” 

* * *

Showing Pym the footage of Tony’s near death experience was… A lot. He looked horrified.

“That… that’s my suit,” he breathed. Tony stared at him, brow raised. Rhodey stood by his side, looking ready to rip something in half. “Oh, God, that’s my suit,” Pym whispered. “I don’t understand, I have it locked up. No one should be able to get that suit!”

Tony patted him on the shoulder. “We aren’t accusing you, Hank. We think someone probably either stole your tech or copied it.”

“How?”

“SHIELD’s been compromised,” Rhodey said then. “Hydra agents everywhere. We don’t have many people we can trust.”

“Shit.” Pym cursed, punching his fist against the countertop to his left. “Shit, shit, shit.”

Tony gave him another pat on the shoulder. “If we see anything that looks like your tech, we’ll let you know. For now we’re just keeping our eyes on the situation. We’ll let you know any updates, okay?”

Pym groaned, before agreeing with an unhappy sigh.

After he was escorted out of Stark tower, Tony looked to Rhodey. His best friend was quiet for a moment before saying, “I don’t know about you, but I could use a few weeks in Malibu.”

Tony laughed out loud at that. “Rhodes, I couldn’t agree more.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think this timeline might also blend into the other timeline that Endgame opened up... We'll see. Not sure yet if I want to write Thanos… I really didn't enjoy that abusive purple man. he was awful.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Iron Man 3 this chapter  
> and then next chapter ;)
> 
> ;)  
> ;)  
> ;)
> 
> you know~

Malibu was a bad decision. Only six months since the last time Tony nearly died, he nearly died again. (Pepper was going to be so mad.)

Things were not going his way.

A crazy terrorist called the Mandarin? Suicide bombings? Happy nearly getting killed in a shopping mall? Yeah, things were not going well. At least he had Thor and Rhodey around to help.

When his Malibu home was shot to hell and back and Tony ended up in the ocean trapped under a mountain of rubble, stuck in a suit of armor, he was pulled out by his resident deity.

“You know, I am getting real sick of having to be saved by you,” he said after Thor set him down and the water drained out of his suit. Thor laughed at that, Rhodey told him he was a dumbass for antagonizing a terrorist, and Pepper called him on the phone screaming and demanding to know if he was okay.

“I’m all right, Pep, but…” He looked to his friends. “I think we might be taking a little trip soon. Got a little reconnaissance mission to do.” 

* * *

It was _so nice_ having friends who could also fly.

Literally.

He was so fucking happy to be flying side by side with Thor and Rhodey. The fact that he nearly died again wasn’t even a problem when he could zoom through the clouds and look to his side and smile at Thor or race with Rhodey to see who could catch a seagull first. God, he felt like a little kid.

Landing in a little po-dunk town with the Norse god of thunder wasn’t exactly low profile, but when has Tony ever denied himself the chance to do a little showboating?

The three of them met a cute little kid named Harley, who told them all about a similar suicide bombing that happened in his little town and Tony decided if he ever had kids he would be a terrible influence on them. Rhodey agreed with that statement.

“I think you are wonderful with children,” Thor said, smiling brightly.

“Thor, I just gave the kid a tranquilizer weapon.”

“Yes, but it was for the purpose of protection,” Thor said. “You worry for his safety and wish to protect him.” He beamed at Tony. “A noble and admirable wish.”

“You have way too much faith in me, buddy,” Tony grumbled, going back to his examination of the explosion sight.

“Should we send any of this to SHIELD?” Rhodey asked, looking as his friend scanned shadows burned onto brick walls.

Tony scoffed and that was all Rhodey needed. “Yeah, good point. Nat said they’ve been finding a lot of double agents lately.”

“Not surprised…” (Tony half didn't trust  _her_ anymore with all the bullshit going on at SHIELD.)

* * *

Defeating Killian had been an adventure. Lots of fire, lots of innocent people nearly getting killed. Loads of fun. Saving the President? Always cool. (Well most of the time anyway.) Thor and Rhodey having his back and helping him save Pepper from a creepy obsessed villain man? Really excellent. Like, really, really excellent.

That Killian guy had a weird thing for Pepper. He didn’t exactly have a crush on her. It seemed more like he wanted to use her to hurt Tony. He wanted to change her from what she was when Tony fell in love with her. (He had made a joke about them being broken up, actually, but the fire Killian spit at him made it seem like the joke went over his head. His loss.)

While Tony had distracted Killian, Thor had flown over and saved Pepper from falling to her probable death, and she struck a blow to Killian’s head the second she was able to. After the blow, Thor lit him up with lightning and Pepper blasted him with a repulsor from one of Tony’s many broken suits. It was honestly kinda hot. Seeing the two of them lit up by fire and electricity.

Rhodey helped him to his feet after everything was finally finished, and they both hugged Pepper and took her to see a specialist. Tony sent a large package gift to his new friend Harley, with a couple presents from Thor and Rhodey respectively, and kept a note in his books to check up on how he was doing every now and then.

He had almost cried when Pepper came to the tower one day with a big smile and announced that she was free of the Extremis virus. She had stayed for a wonderful pizza night with Thor, Jane, Darcy, and Selvig that night. They all watched movies and drank shitty sodas and cocoa mix. All in all it was a great time. (Tony may have actually cried when Pepper gave him a kiss on the forehead and wished him a Merry Christmas.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shockingly enough, Iron Man 3 was the movie that got me into Frostiron. Not the first Avengers. (I go back and re-watch it now and see all the stuff I wasn't paying attention to, but back when I had first seen it, I just thought Loki was neat.)  
> The whole nightmares thing, I think was what got me interested... I didn't see Avengers until like... a year (?) after it came out. It was already on DVD by then. My brother had bought it and was watching it and I caught like halfway through the battle of New York. Thor fighting Loki and I was like, "Ooh, hold up- who is this bitch??" And well.. Here we are today. :)
> 
> (The first MCU film I ever saw was Iron Man 2. I was confused as fuck when I saw Rhodey wasn't Don Cheadle in the first one. I looked and went, "That's not Rhodey, who is this man. where did Rhodey go")


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AY, ITS YA BOI GUZMA

Jane was officially on Tony’s payroll by this point. She was brilliant and crafty and all she needed was the funding to do the research she never could. (And hey, Tony had a plethora of funding to spare.) He liked trying to work with her, though. Sometimes they bounced ideas off of each other and helped each other with their own problems without even meaning to.

They also talked relationships together. Jane was happy with Thor, she was, but she said she just didn’t know if they were something meant to last.

“Don’t get me wrong, I love him,” she said as she typed coordinates into a computer. “He’s sweet, he’s charming, he’s caring, he’s just… _so_ …”

“Much?” Tony offered.

Jane nodded, looking back at him. “Yeah. Yeah, he can be a little overwhelming sometimes.”

“Maybe you two need a little time apart?” He poked at one of her little globes in her office. “I know Pepper and I used to drive each other crazy if we spent too much time doing the same thing in the same place. Sometimes a little break is all you need.”

He spun the globe. “If you need a vacation, or to do research in another location, I could make up some excuse for you. Give you a chance to cool down.”

Jane smiled at him then. “Thanks, Tony. I really appreciate that.” 

* * *

Tony decided he should just never do things ever again. Ever.

He sent Jane to London for some research project and she called him and Thor a week later saying a glowing red liquid was inside her and she was blowing things up when she touched them.

“We’ll be there as soon as we can, just hold on Jane,” Tony said before hanging up.

“I can get there fastest,” Thor said, worry written all over his face. “I will meet you there. I have to take care of Jane.”

“Yeah, of course buddy. You go. I gotta let Pep know what’s going on and then I’ll be right after you.”

With a quick nod, Thor rushed to the elevator to go to the rooftop. It would only be a few minutes and he would be flying through the air.

Tony turned back to his screen, ready to tell JARVIS to call Pepper up, when a voice cut across his very thoughts.

“It is the ether.”

He spun around so fast he fell over. (He also may have shrieked.) Scrambling back up onto his elbows, Tony gaped like a fish at the uninvited guest standing in his penthouse.

“ _Loki!?_ ” He squawked. (What the hell, JARVIS?!)

The mischief maker only lowered his head in acknowledgement for a moment before speaking. “You’ve recovered well, Stark.”

Tony let out a hysterical laugh. “Yeah, well, when nearly dying becomes a regular thing you kind of get used to it.” He pushed himself back up to his feet then. He glanced around once, wondering again what was taking JARVIS so long. May as well stall. “What the hell are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be as far away as possible? You know, avoiding Asgardian justice or something like that?”

Loki spared a slow look toward the elevator Thor had taken. “I was,” he answered smoothly.

Tony waited. And waited. “… _But…?_ ” (Any time, Jarv!)

“But,” Loki said, smiling a little bit, like he was teasing him, “I sensed the shift in energy across the cosmos.”

“You what now?”

He motioned with one shoulder in the direction of the elevator. “What happened with Thor’s woman. The red substance…”

Now Tony actually was curious. “………Yeah…?”

Loki rolled his eyes then. “It is no ordinary substance.” When Tony only continued to blink at him, he sighed. “Must I spell it out for you?”

“Maybe?”

“It’s an infinity stone.”

Tony felt his legs go cold. (Which, weird, why his legs of all things?) “Shit,” he cursed. “Won’t that kill her?”

“It may,” Loki answered. “The stones are fickle things. The ether is most… fluid of them all.”

“We gotta get to her as soon as we can, then. Fuck, this sucks so much ass.” Tony had moved to grab his jacket and paused. Damn his multi-tasking. “Wait… How are you here without setting off any alarms? Jarv hasn’t said anything and Eye in the Sky hasn’t alerted the space authorities.”

Loki actually chuckled at the last bit of his sentence. He ran his fingertips across the surface of an end table Tony had near one of his couches. (One Pepper picked out. He noticed the dust when Loki rubbed his fingers together. Gotta clean that.)

“Honestly if, after a thousand years, I could not hide my presence from those I do not wish to find me, what sort of mage would I be?”

“Ah, fuck, right,” Tony groaned. “Magic. Thor told me you were good at that.”

Loki only hummed with a smile after that. His eyes narrowed. “To be honest, I had expected you would react more to my being here.”

Tony wanted to laugh again. If he only knew! “Yeah, well, let’s just say you were only like the third weirdest thing that happened to me that day.”

Loki quirked a brow up at that, but didn’t ask anything more about it.

“Well, you were going to the aid of this Jane woman, weren’t you?” He asked instead.

“Right. Yeah. Jane, right.” Tony pulled his jacket on and called his suit to him. Loki sauntered to his side as the pieces of his newest baby flew onto his body. “Wait, are you… are you actually helping us?”

Watching as his suit clicked and shifted into place, Loki smirked. “Why would I still be here if I wasn’t?”

“Okay, well, _why_ are you helping us, then?” Tony asked instead. (Ass. Just answer the question, why don’t you?)

“Who is to say I’m not just helping myself?” Tony rolled his eyes at that response. Fucker really wasn’t gonna give him a straight answer.

“All right then,” Tony said, trying to force his brain to catch up with what was happening. “But if you throw me out of a window again, I am definitely not inviting you to my birthday party.” And Loki laughed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yeet


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> one more just for the heck of it

When Thor saw Loki upon his arrival, there may or may not have been a very loud whooping noise that came out of his mouth.

When Jane saw him, she may or may not have gone right up and slapped him across the face. (Tony officially loved her.)

After getting slapped, Loki had simply smiled and announced, “I like her.” And they all got to work. Or, Loki did and everyone else watched him with worry.

Jane was nervous as Loki said he was going to check her energy. None of them knew what that meant, well maybe Thor did, and it was a little bit uncomfortable. Loki sighed. “It should be painless,” he said.

“ _Should_?” Jane repeated, eyeing him warily.

“Would you like me to demonstrate on Thor to ease your worries?”

“Honestly I just want you to explain why you’re not all world domination happy,” Tony said.

“I never wanted to rule your world,” Loki said then, scowling. “I just… wanted a place where I could be alone…” He clenched his fists as he said that and his shoulders rose up near his ears almost in a defensive stance. He was staring furiously at the ground, and he had an almost haunted look in his eyes, but Tony figured he was the only one who noticed that judging by the question Jane asked next.

“And so you just figured having a whole planet at your mercy was the best way to be alone?”

Snarling, Loki turned away from them, green sparks danced around his hands. It looked like small fireworks, the way they sparkled and burst.

“Believe me, or don’t, this doesn’t change that you very likely will die if you truly have the ether within you.” They all went quiet after that. No more arguments.

Loki took one brief moment to look Jane over before waving out a small patch of glowing green light in front of her and pushing it across her body. Her hair and clothes rustled like it was a breeze before the whole room seemed to absolutely explode in a flurry of red energy and fiery sparks. The only one left standing after that little incident had been Loki, and he looked like he had pulled up some sort of shield.

“What the fuck was that!?” Tony shouted, pushing himself back up and joining Thor in helping Jane up.

Loki growled, actually growled, and lowered the arm he had raised to defend himself. “As much as it pains me to say it… I don’t know,” he spat, looking pissed. (Or, well… More pissed… Since he seemed pretty mad earlier with the sparkles.)

Tony looked at Thor then and whispered, “Does that happen often?”

“Not really,” he replied, “Loki spent many days in the palace library learning all he could of the universe. If there is something that befuddles Loki- it is ancient magic.”

Tony looked back at Loki. “Fuckin’ nerd,” he teased. Loki ignored him.

“So what does that mean for me?” Jane asked, breathing heavily after the ordeal she just went through. “What’s gonna happen to me?”

Loki didn’t answer at first, and Thor even turned to look at him then. It looked like Loki was chewing glass, he looked so angry.

“Don’t know, do ya?” Tony asked. Loki slowly let his squared shoulders fall and shook his head. “Know anyone who might?” Tony tried then.

“I…” Loki started, paused, and then groaned loudly. “Yes… Actually, I think I do.”

“Great! Who is it?”

“…Odin…”

Tony’s face fell. “Oh.” Fuck. “Well that sucks.” Loki raised a brow at him.

“Why? Have you met him?”

“Well, no- I just- I mean, we just- we can’t get to him. The bifrost thingy is still broken, isn’t it?”

And then Loki’s face split into a grin. “Who said anything about taking the bifrost?” With a wave of his hand, and a split second of bright light, Loki produced a very familiar looking blue cube from nowhere. “If we go anywhere, we go—” Loki’s whole face seemed to light up as he paused then, the Tesseract shimmering in his grasp, “—My way.” 

* * *

Getting to Asgard was a little unsettling. Travelling via Tesseract teleportation was not the ideal way to travel. Tony honestly preferred being thrown around on the world’s oldest roller coaster to travelling like that.

When he finally found his footing, he pointed at Loki and ground out, “We are never doing that again.” Loki only laughed at him and said something about mortals. Tony stopped listening because, wow that was a lot of gold.

“Thor, this is where you _live_?” Jane whispered, sounding just as awed as Tony felt.

Modest as he was, Thor only said yes.  Aaaaand then they were surrounded by soldiers with swords. What a welcome party.

Tony just smiled at them all, holding his hands up, and said, “We come in peace! Take us to your leader and we promise we won’t probe you!” He wasn’t sure, but he was pretty sure he heard someone giggle snort at that. (Jane, maybe?) The guards had all stomped forward and knocked him down after he had said it, so he wasn’t really listening too well.

“Leave him!” Thor shouted at the guards. “He is my friend! If you hurt him, so help me-!”

“Peace, Thor,” a soft voice seemed to rise above the small chaos crowding around them. At the sound of the new voice, all the guards stopped what they were doing and stood aside, clearing a path. When Tony lifted his head, he saw a very lovely looking woman standing just at the edge of the crowd of guards.

Thor seemed to ooze relief. “Mother.”

“ _That’s_ your mom?” Tony squawked. Thor beamed at him and Tony looked back at the woman. Well, now he knew where Thor got his good looks.

The woman, obviously the queen, smiled and bowed her head slightly at him before turning her attention to her other son standing to Tony’s right.

“Loki,” she greeted, sounding tired in her voice, but happy all the same.

“Hello mmm… mother,” Loki said back, stopping himself before seeming to decide to say it anyway.

“I’ve missed you,” she said then. Loki grimaced at that and looked away. “I am glad you are safe, love.”

Loki looked like he was both embarrassed out of his mind and like he was about to cry. “Thank you, mother,” was all he said after that, his voice quieter than Tony had heard from him since the god showed up again.

“Heimdall has told us what’s happened with your beloved, Thor,” she said then, turning back to her firstborn son. “Come, we will take her to the healers and your father will meet us there.”

And with that, the four of them were led through the golden halls of Asgard. Tony kept getting so distracted by all the things he wanted to study that he ended up getting dragged down the halls by Jane. You know, Jane? The fellow scientist who also wanted to study everything in this place who also probably had an infinity stone inside her body right now? Yeah, Tony felt embarrassed after that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys I just wanted to say thanks for all of the kind words, kudos, bookmarks... just... everything....
> 
> I have been super depressed lately. Feeling like a failure, you know how it goes.
> 
> So just... seeing so many people saying such sweet things... really means a lot.
> 
> So, thanks.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> loki, loki, loki~

Tony decided he didn’t like Odin.

He did not like him.

Odin essentially called Jane a bitch. To her face. And Jane was great! Jane was a hell of a lot better than Tony was and Odin was calling her a bitch!

He did not like him.

After Odin had basically told them that since he couldn’t kick them out they were allowed to stay in Asgard, Tony made sure to tell Thor how he felt about the man.

“Thor, your dad is an ass.” The noise Loki made at that statement sounded suspiciously like a scoff.

Thor looked sheepish, but didn’t try to argue. “I like your mom, though,” Tony said, smiling. “She’s a sweetie.”

“Thank you.”

“Jesus!” Tony screeched and nearly fell over. Spinning around, seeing the queen standing behind them, he rounded on Loki. “Now I know where you get it from! You two are gonna give me another fucking heart attack, I swear!”

There was some laughter from Jane and Thor at his predicament, but Loki and the queen didn’t join them. Thor’s mom muttered something about, “What does he mean ‘another’” but otherwise didn’t look too bothered.

“Loki,” she called to the mischief god, holding out a hand. When Loki reacted by stiffening and looking away, she spoke again.

“Please.”

That one word broke him, and Loki began to trudge toward her. He acted like weights were attached to his legs, even though Tony could see they were free. He kept his head down, never taking his eyes off the ground, and finally- Finally, Loki came to a stop just within reach of the woman who raised him.

She took a step forward into his space and reached her hands up to cup both sides of his face.

“You look tired, darling…” Loki’s shoulders shook then and Tony honestly wasn’t sure if he had laughed or cried. She stayed how she was, holding his head in her hands, looking up at him, and smiled sadly at him. “You do not have to come see me tonight. Or the next. Or any night if you do not wish to, Loki.” She bowed her head and gently pressed her temple to her son’s collar bone.

“I will not force you to see me until you are ready.”

It was quiet then. No one said anything for a long while.

Agonizingly slowly, Loki raised his hand to his mother. He rested his hand overtop of one of hers and said, “Thank you… Thank you, mother.” 

* * *

Asgard was a weird place. Everyone dressed like they were from the 1800s and carried an overly large weapon with them in plain view. It only slightly triggered Tony’s PTSD. Only slightly.

His discomfort must have been obvious, because Jane not so subtly asked Thor to tell his friends to put the weapons away for a little while. She said that it made _her_ uneasy, which Tony knew was total bullshit because Darcy was constantly waving a Taser in everyone’s face and Jane never even blinked at it. (Jane was hard core.)

Another way Asgard was weird was how attractive everyone was. Like, _everyone_ was hot. Some of them were on a slightly higher level than others, but as he looked at everyone he met, there was almost no one Tony wouldn’t hit on if given the chance. (Except maybe Odin, since he was mean, and Frigga because hitting on his friend’s mom was kind of skeevy.)

Odin had confirmed that yes, Jane had the ether inside her body. He said it would eventually kill her but he had no way to remove it. He had suggested, sounding like he was joking which made Tony want to hit him- that it may just come out on its own over time. It wasn’t like a splinter! God, Tony was ready to punch the guy.

Thor was talking with Odin currently. Tony may or may not have been spying. For all they knew he just happened to take a break from exploring around the corner from them by chance.

“You would be better served by what lies in front of you,” Odin said. Tony had heard the rest of the conversation before then and honestly he really wanted to throttle Odin. He was trying to get Thor to break up with Jane! Even if they broke up on their own terms, that was shitty! God, Thor had a super shit dad. Howard probably would have been like this with Tony if he hadn’t died.

He had to make a quick exit so the two gods wouldn’t know he was eavesdropping, and eventually Tony let himself get lost in the palace halls. Very lost. Wow, okay, he was sure he had walked by that same statue three times now. Where was he?

A very, _very_ attractive man with the brightest eyes Tony had ever seen found him and offered to lead him to the others.

“So, uh, what’s your name?” Tony asked as they walked.

“Heimdall,” he replied, smiling. “You’ve spoken to me a few times now.”

Tony whistled. He couldn’t help it. “ _Damn_. If I had known someone like _you_ was watching me I would have given you more of a show.”

Heimdall laughed loudly at that. He laughed long and loud and gave Tony a couple of pats on the back. “You know,” he said, still chuckling, “I get that every now and again.”

“You should get it every damn time you want, ho-ly Fuck.”

Heimdall dropped Tony off by Loki’s side with another bout of chuckles before leaving with a slight wave of his hand. Once he was gone, Tony turned to Loki.

“Okay, seriously, is there something in the water in this place? Literally all of you people are fucking gorgeous!” Loki made a bit of a face at him and Tony rolled his eyes. “Oh, don’t give me that crap,” Tony said, swatting his hand against Loki’s chest. “ _Thor’s_ hot, _you’re_ hot, even your eye in the sky man is hot!” He crossed his arms over his chest. “It’s just not fair, I tell you.”

In response to all that, besides looking a little bit pink around the cheekbones, Loki only made a small noise. (Who would have guessed the god of mischief wouldn’t appreciate hearing that his adopted brother was hot?)

It took a long moment before either of them spoke. Surprisingly enough, it was Loki who did first.

“So you’re really not bothered being around me after all I’ve done to you?”

“Oh, no,” Tony said back in an instant. “Just seeing you again is doing all sorts of shit to my anxiety.” He smiled brightly at the god and said, “I’m almost positive I’m going to have nightmares tonight about New York.”

Loki stared at him. And stared. …And stared…

“Gettin’ a little creepy, Rudolph.”

He finally looked away. “How can you be so cheerful knowing you’ve shared a weakness with your enemy?”

“Well,” Tony said with a bit of a pout as he thought about it. “I guess I didn’t think telling you about how I sleep was a weakness.”

“You do not know much about being a warrior, then,” Loki said, giving him a bit of a look.

“Speaking of warriors, where’s your blond beefcake of an adopted brother?” Tony glanced around. He had hardly noticed he and Loki were alone until just now. (Said a lot about Tony, then, didn’t it? He was already so used to the god that he wasn’t even that worried being alone with him. He got more uncomfortable being around Justin Hammer, for fuck sake! Well, that may have been giving Hammer too much credit… The guy was a fuckwad.)

Loki motioned with one shoulder toward an exit to the palace. He didn’t move further than that, so Tony peeked his head out and took a look around. What he saw was a beautiful courtyard with blossoming trees and small ponds and stone benches darted about. Sitting under the biggest tree, he spotted Thor and Jane. Currently engaged in what looked like a very intimate make-out session. He pulled back from the doorway.

“Oh.”

Loki only nodded, looking down at his nails then and picking at them a bit.

“Should we give them some space?” Tony asked.

“And go where?” Loki asked, raising his head, looking like he expected Tony to give him some bullshit answer. Like he was expecting Tony to suggest something he was going to hate and was ready to say no before he even asked. “The ether is trapped in this woman. If something goes wrong, should we not remain nearby?”

“Jesus, if you don’t wanna hang out with me, you just had to say so… Anyway, I was just gonna go check out that library Thor was talking abouuuo-okay.” Halfway through what he had been saying Loki’s head had popped back up and he had grabbed Tony’s arm, yanking him in one direction and the next thing he knew he was in a massive room absolutely _filled_ with books.

It took his brain a moment to process that he wasn’t in that hallway anymore.

“Uhhh….” He looked around and frowned when he noticed Loki wasn’t by his side. Did… did he really just drop him off in the library and ditch him? What the fuck?! Things seemed like they had been going all right, what the hell did he say!?

 “All right, then I guess I’m gonna have to find Heimdall again, because there is no way I’m getting out of here by myself…”

* * *

Tony was a little bit mad that Loki had ditched him, but he got to spend some more time ogling that Heimdall guy, so it wasn’t too bad.

“Hello Stark,” Thor greeted him with a big smile once he made it to the banquet hall where Thor was getting ready to go in and eat.

“Hey,” he said back, pouting a bit. When Thor asked him if everything was all right, Tony came right out and said, “Loki fucking ditched me in the library.”

Thor looked startled. “Truly? But Loki adores the library!” His eyes squinted. “You must have said something to have offended him.”

“I don’t know what the hell I did… I was joking that he didn’t want to hang out with me and then, poof,” Tony grumbled, looking around as they stepped into the banquet hall.

“That must have been it, then,” Thor decided. “Come, let us eat and drink and enjoy yours and Jane’s first night in Asgard!”

“Thor, you had me at eat. I’m _starved_.”

* * *

Tony only took two books from the library for now. (He found five books written in Mandarin and six written in French. He had yet to find any written in English, but he did find one written in Italian and was able to read that.) He was reading them out in one the courtyards, waiting as the healers and Loki took another look at Jane. Thor was with them, but he was mostly emotional support.

He had only just gotten to the third chapter in his book when everything went to shit. It felt like an earthquake. The ground below him shook and then the explosions started. About six seconds after the first two, Thor rushed out of the other room he had been in. “Asgard is under attack!”

Well, fuck.

Tony donned his suit, tucked the books under a bench, and got to work.

JARVIS didn’t function properly in Asgard, so Tony had to go it alone and eyeball every attack, but he was fairly confident the creepy aliens he was fighting had never seen anything like him. He had the advantage.

He shot down as many ships as he possibly could. He moved as many civilians out of harm’s way as he could. He distracted enemies to give Thor enough time to focus a blast of lightning and take out multiple foes at once. At one point he even launched Loki into the air when the mage called for him and watched as Loki sent out a massive wave of fire at the approaching spaceships.

And then Tony realized they had lost sight of Jane.

He managed to blast his way through rows and rows of enemies before crashing into a room with four occupants. Jane, a pale man with white hair, a giant monster with horns, and Queen Frigga. The horned monster had the queen in his grasp, but dropped her when the rubble of Tony’s unexpected entrance flew at him. Tony fired half a dozen repulsor blasts at the two hostiles, managed to hit the pale man twice, and then was thrown back as a sword made impact with his chest.

He hit the ground and everything went black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :3


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> surprise, tony isn't dead
> 
> I am, though.  
> dead.  
> dead and wanting chocolate.

Tony woke up to Thor and Jane hovering over him. (Mostly Thor.) When he blinked his eyes open, Thor let out such a loud breath Tony half wondered if he had been holding it the entire time he was unconscious.

“Uh, hey guys…” He looked between the two of them. “How goes it?”

“They got away,” Thor said. “They got away, but Jane is safe. Mother is safe. Asgard is safe, and we owe it to you, Stark.”

Tony sat up on his elbows, groaned with the twinge of pain in his chest, and looked around the room. Loki was standing off to the side with the queen, who both appeared to be talking with a very weary looking guard. Jane was kneeling by Tony’s side, and she looked nervous as all hell. Thor was kneeling as well, but he seemed resolute and stubborn.

“What happened?”

“They killed over a hundred of our men,” Loki answered, turning around with a frown.

Thor nodded to his statement. “Father called them the dark elves. Their leader, the man that attacked you, is Malekith.” Tony glanced down at his suit as Thor mentioned his attack and he hissed when he saw the massive gash in the metal left by the sword. He didn’t want to know who had the task of yanking the sword out, but whoever had done it left a mess of severed wires and chunks everywhere.

“It’s gonna take me forever to fix my suit,” he groaned, pressing the manual release to let himself out. Once he was sitting up in the shell of metal, he looked at Thor again. “So what did the dark elves want?”

“Me,” Jane answered, dropping from the kneel she had been in to sit facing away from them.

“You?”

“They are after the ether.” Oh, hey Odin, nice of you to drop in. Tony turned and raised an eyebrow at the king of Asgard. Loki had not so subtly moved away from Odin when he entered the room. Thor stood up. “Malekith seeks to change reality. Plunge the world back into an era of darkness.”

“So he wants to wipe out the sun?” Tony asked. When Odin scowled at him he had to hold back a smirk. (Now he knew who reminded him of Hammer in this family.)

“There are very few species in this universe that can survive without light,” Odin said, almost ignoring his question. “Malekith and his kind are just one species… He desires a universe more empty. A place more peaceful for his filth.”

Tony leaned over to whisper to Jane. “That’s like the first time I’ve ever actually heard someone call an entire species filth.”

Jane smiled a little at him, then, but didn’t say anything. She seemed exhausted. He offered his hand and let her squeeze it gently.

“We must find Malekith, father,” Thor said, taking a step toward Odin.

Odin stamped his staff on the ground when Thor got too close. “No,” he barked. “We must protect Asgard. Keep the palace fortified. Protect our realm.”

“They destroyed our protections!” Thor argued. “They killed hundreds of our men! Father, if we wait here, they will just come back!”

Odin’s face was stern. “And when they do, their forces will fall on a thousand Asgardian blades.”

“And how many of us will fall on theirs?”

“As many as are needed!” Odin shouted, then. Bellowed, really. His voice echoed in the small room. Everyone was tense. Jane was clutching Tony’s hand so hard it hurt.

“Odin,” Frigga’s voice broke the quiet tension. The king’s firmly squared shoulders dropped a fraction at his wife’s voice.

“My father defeated Malekith once,” Odin said, huffing a little bit, “I will be the one to defeat him again.”

Thor stared at his father for a moment before shaking his head and taking a step back. “No. Not like this, father.” He clenched his fist tight around the handle of Mjolnir. “You are playing into his hand this way. I cannot sit by while Malekith slaughters our people.” And with that, Thor turned, helped Jane to her feet, and walked out of the room with her.

Odin had fallen silent then. Frigga walked over to his side, resting one hand gently against his forearm, and Tony turned his head to look at Loki.

“Should we, uh… Follow them?” He asked. Loki didn’t reply, but when he started making his way to the exit, he did pause and wait for Tony to pick his suit up and start following after him.

As they walked through the halls, or well Loki walked and Tony limped as he tried to drag his suit, Tony observed all the damage done during the battle. So many destroyed columns and damaged walls. There were bodies everywhere, being collected by healers and other warriors. It was honestly super depressing to look at.

“Yo, Reindeer Games,” Tony called when Loki started to get too far ahead of him. Loki stopped and looked back at him, looking irritated that he had been interrupted.

“If you don’t want me to be completely useless here, maybe you shouldn’t leave me to get lost in the halls,” he said, huffing and readjusting his suit in his grip.

Loki scoffed at him before marching back to where he was, yanking the suit from his hands, and turning back around. He tucked the suit under one of his arms and said in a clipped, angry voice, “Hurry up.”

And Tony quickly scurried to Loki’s other side and walked by him. “Damn,” he said, looking around at how easily Loki carried his suit. “I didn’t realize just how strong you were.”

“I am not human,” Loki said, as if that was any sort of answer.

“No, yeah, I get that,” Tony said, “It’s just… Thor’s got all the really obvious muscles, so you just _assume_ he could bench-press a grown man when you look at him. _You_ on the other hand…”

“Yes, I know,” Loki huffed, “I am scrawny and thin by comparison. You do not have to point it out.”

Tony stammered and spluttered at that, face going a little bit red with his surprise. He may or may not have spit a little bit in his shock. “I- I wasn’t gonna call you scrawny!”

“Bony, then?” Loki drawled, looking bored. “Spindly? Weak? Scraggly? Gaunt? Skeletal? I’ve heard it all before, Stark. And from brighter minds than your own. Whatever words you were thinking, I’ve heard them.”

“I was more thinking something like lithe,” Tony said, frowning a little bit at how Loki seemed bored by the idea of being insulted. Loki raised a brow at him when he said his chosen word.

“Lithe?” He parroted, looking like he didn’t know what the word meant.

“Well, I mean,” Tony rolled his hands around in the air in front of him as he formulated words. “You kind of have a runner’s body. Or maybe a swimmer’s. Maybe a basketball player’s with how tall you are.”

“I have no idea what basketball is,” Loki responded, looking forward and motioning with one hand to let Tony know they were turning down a different hallway.

“I’ll explain it later,” Tony said. “Point is, I wasn’t gonna call you scrawny.” Loki only hummed at that. “You went toe to toe with Thor when you were trying to take over Earth like it was no problem.” He patted himself on the chest then. “I’ve fought the big guy before, as I’m sure you remember since you decided to sit back and watch, and I kind of got my ass handed to me a little bit there. And you even kicked Cap’s ass in Germany.”

“You put up more of a fight than you think,” Loki said, pointing again before they went down a different path. “Thor is used to demolishing everything in his path. Your light show certainly surprised him.”

“Well, yeah, but Cap was the one who finally settled him down.”

Loki shrugged. “Another surprise.”

“Speaking of surprises,” Tony said then, drawing a quick glance from Loki, “We’re hanging out!” He pointed back and forth between them as they walked. “Us! Right now! You! Me! You know, the guy you threw out a window! We’re hanging out!”

“Don’t read too much into it,” Loki huffed.

“Oh, I am going to read so much into it. I’m gonna read _so much_ into it, it’ll make your head spin.” 

* * *

Thor had come up with a plan by the time Loki and Tony reached him. He had his friends gathered with him and once the two of them arrived, he motioned them over to discuss. (Tony half noticed that Loki chose to sit next to him, rather than in the open spot between Thor and a very pretty lady with long dark hair. Bad blood, maybe? Another window throwing victim?)

“So, we are all in agreement that something must be done?”

“Malekith cannot be allowed back into Asgard as it is,” the blond guy across from Thor said. “We are too weakened right now to defend ourselves properly.”

Heimdall was with them. “Malekith is recovering his strength after the first battle. I can’t say how long it will be before he is ready to fight again.”

Jane was sitting by Thor’s right, but she seemed to be dozing in and out during the whole thing. Tony hoped she would be okay. He had never seen her so tired. He watched her as he listened to the others speak.

“We will need a distraction,” Thor said. “With the tesseract, Loki will be able to transport us quickly, but we will need something to keep father occupied so he cannot summon us back.”

“Should we get a ship since my suit is out of commission?” Tony asked, dragging his eyes away from Jane.

“Probably,” Loki answered him. “You and Jane are only mortal, after all.”

“Gee, thanks,” Tony quipped, frowning at him. “I meant like a way to travel across whatever planet Malekith is on right now. I don’t really think teleporting right on top of him is a good idea. And walking three miles across a hostile planet doesn’t sound good either.”

“You should take a ship from Asgard,” the man with black hair said. Tony had given up on trying to know their names. Thor hadn’t even introduced them. “If you are unable, Thor, it should be simple enough for your friends to control on their own.”

Tony huffed. “Did no one see me flying the metal suit of armor around earlier?” Heimdall gave him a soft pat on the back at that, but Tony was still pouting. “Just because we’re not bullet proof like you guys doesn’t mean we’re useless.” He spotted the way the girl with dark hair rolled her eyes at him and scowled at her. “I’d like to see any of you use my suits! You’d have no clue what you were doing!”

“Stark, please, this is no time to fight,” Thor said, trying to appease him.

Still huffing, Tony snapped at Thor. “No, it’s a perfectly reasonable time to fight! If your friends don’t think I’ll be able to help you, then maybe I should just stay here and _they_ could go with you to this evil planet!”

“To be fair, I trust the mortal a lot more than I trust Loki,” the blond from before said.

Loki looked like he was minutes from slicing the guy’s tongue out, but he remained quiet. Tony rounded on him fast, though.

“Excuse me, did Loki throw _you_ out of a window!?” The blond blinked in surprise at him, startled by the finger Tony pointed in his face. When he didn’t say anything, Tony nodded and sat himself back down. “Yeah, that’s what I thought. If I don’t have a problem with him, then none of you have any excuse to.”

Tony heard the girl whisper to Thor what sounded like ‘you didn’t tell them’ but he ignored it and instead smacked his hand against the table they were gathered around. “All right, let’s go, stealing a ship! Plan A!”

Everyone was quiet for a moment before Thor started talking about the plan again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tony is very angry that all these hot people aren't taking him seriously.
> 
> loki and tony got to hang out, I'm happy.  
> :)
> 
> (Even though they only got to hang out for a little while. It's progress.)  
> \---Obviously I wasn't going to kill Frigga. Having a woman die so Thor and Loki can feel bad about it was probably my least favorite part of Dark World. I loved almsot all the rest of it. So much Loki content. Weak villain, but so much Loki. So much of the BOI.---
> 
>  
> 
> Literally all Marvel ahd to do was give me more Loki content and I would have enjoyed Endgame more. Literally just like half an hour more Loki and it wouldn't have been so bad. I just want Loki time. That's it. Just give the man some screen time and you've basically got my approval.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> more of the best boi
> 
> loki is my soft, special boi.

Riding in a flying gondola looking thing was definitely one of the weirdest things Tony had ever done in his life. Riding in the gondola with two space gods and his scientist friend who had a murder rock inside her body? Even weirder.

Jane had fallen asleep while they flew across the dreary black plains of this planet. Svart… Alf… No… Hel… Fuck, whatever this place was called. (The escape had gone great. Thor's friends distracted Odin and the guards and were doing their best to keep him occupied while they were gone. Heimdall had already said he would refuse to reveal where they were.)

Loki had been piloting the ship, Thor sat by Jane’s side, and Tony sat awkwardly in the middle. “What I could do with the power that flows through her veins,” Loki said, almost like an offhanded comment.

“What, you would take over another planet?” Tony asked, frowning a little bit. Loki frowned right back at him.

“It would kill you, Loki,” Thor said, not looking at him.

“ _She’s_ holding up all right.”

Thor tucked some of Jane’s hair behind her ear. “No… It drains her…” He looked back at his brother. “If the ether remains within her much longer, I fear it will eat away at her until there is nothing left.”

Loki shrugged. “There are less painful ways to die.”

Tony barked out a single laugh at that. “Oh yeah, eaten from the inside. Sounds just like passing in your sleep.”

Thor shifted so he was fully facing him. “Loki…”

“No,” Loki instantly said. “I know what you’re going to ask, Thor. I’m just saving you the trouble.”

“Please,” Thor pleaded, “Everything is so different now… What happened to you after you fell?”

The lines around Loki’s eyes were hard, and his face was set and cold. His jaw was clenched tight, and Tony could see the muscle twitch in his face as he sat there.

“You’re not the same, Loki…” Thor looked heartbroken. Like he wanted to run up and hug Loki and cry all at once. “You haven’t even seen mother since we’ve returned…”

Loki looked tense as a bowstring about to snap. He wasn’t looking at Thor, not really. He was staring just past him, out over the horizon. After an exhale loud enough that Tony heard it, Loki said, “Nothing, Thor… It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t change anything…”

As he watched Loki and the defensive pose he had taken without even seeming to notice, Tony started doing calculations in his head. Thinking about past events, comparing them to new information he had now. Thor was right. Loki _was_ different. He wasn’t actively trying to kill either him or Jane. He hadn’t tried anything when he was in the penthouse. The worst he had done was ditch Tony in the library, honestly. He was calmer, but… To him, it almost seemed like Loki was angry. But… not angry. Even though his muscles were tight as he held himself, the look of exhaustion in his eyes was as obvious as in Jane’s. Tony knew that look. He had seen it in himself when he was dying. Exhausted after fighting for so long that in your eyes you can see the small part of you that just wants to give up and rest.

Tony moved to where Loki was piloting and gently poked at his hands. Loki looked up at him, surprise obvious on his face. “Show me how this thing works,” Tony said, kneeling down next to him. “I’ve been dying to take the tech apart in this thing since we took it.” He offered a little smile as he said that. It wasn’t exactly a lie. He had wanted to take everything apart the minute he had set foot in Asgard. When Thor and Heimdall had shown him where they were rebuilding the bifrost he had been seconds away from ripping gears off the wall to analyze them.

After looking at him for a second, Loki acquiesced and let Tony take hold of the steering mechanism. “It responds to how much pressure you use, and where,” he said. Tony was all ears. 

* * *

Fighting Malekith had been… Something. They had tried destroying the ether when he extracted it from Jane with a blast of lightning from Thor, but all that happened was a big explosion and then Malektih still had the stone. Loki had blocked Jane from getting hit by the brunt of the force, and once it was clear Malekith was going to attack them, he quickly lifted her and passed her to Tony. “Get her somewhere safe,” he had said. And then suddenly Loki had daggers and was charging back into the fray.

“Fuck,” Tony swore as he hurried Jane back to the Asgardian ship they had taken. She was dazed, and even though Tony knew she normally would have been a great asset in this fight, right now she needed rest. A minute to recuperate. “Really wishing I had more of my suit right now,” he hissed, grabbing his arm pieces and hooking them into place along with the leg casings. He couldn’t do much, but at least he could help distract or throw one of the elves off Thor and Loki.

At one point Tony flew down near enough to Loki when he was slamming an elf into a rock outcrop that he was able to shout, “You got any weapons I could borrow?”

It took a quick wave of his hand and Loki was tossing what appeared to be a mace in his direction. Tony swooped to catch it, spun around, and smacked an approaching elf with it. They fell instantly.

Beaming, he shouted to Loki again. “It’s perfect!” Unsurprisingly, Loki didn’t answer, just kept stabbing the elves that were repeatedly trying to surround him.

Tony tried to help him and help Thor, going back and forth between them. During the middle of all the chaos, Malekith had managed to escape in his massive invisible ship. When Tony saw the ship disappearing from view, he hissed to himself. “I gotta make myself a suit that can do that. Harley was right, it’s cool as shit.”

He turned when he heard a pained roar and saw Loki standing with a large sword stabbed through the monster Thor had been fighting. The monster was turning toward him and then- disaster. It had grabbed Loki and stabbed him with the same sword he had just used. Thor’s scream when it happened was enough to send Tony speeding as fast as he could toward them, blasting the monster far away from them, only half noticing as it collapsed in on itself. He dropped down at the same moment Thor had jumped up and cradled Loki in his arms. Loki was twitching with the pain of being stabbed through.

“Fuck, Thor, hold him still,” Tony hissed, pushing closer and ripping fabric from his own shirt. Thor looked startled, but quickly held Loki tighter to him. Tony took the fabric he had and pressed it hard against one side of Loki’s wound. Loki let out a howl of pain at the pressure.

“Sorry,” Tony apologized quickly, “But if I can survive someone cutting a hole in my chest, so can you.”

He didn’t see the horrified look on Thor’s face when he said that, but he did see the way Loki’s eyes flicked to his arc reactor. He was still twitching and his hands kept clenching and unclenching. His skin was taking on a bit of a grey hue, and Tony quickly pressed against the back of Loki’s wound. He hissed that time, not making as much noise.

“I’m sorry,” Loki said then, looking up at Thor and gasping when a violent tremor shook him and jostled Tony’s hands against his injury.

Thor shushed him. “No, no, don’t you apologize. Don’t you dare, Loki.”

Loki’s eyes rolled back for a brief moment and both Thor and Tony panicked a little bit then, but he came back after a painful gasp. “Oh, I’m such a fool,” Loki groaned, his trembling hands moving the fabric of his outfit aside to observe the wound.

“What, you mean standing within reach of a crazy alien murder monster _wasn’t_ smart?” Tony scoffed. “I had no idea!”

Loki groaned. “When I am able, Stark, I will throttle you.”

“So long as you remember your promise of no more windows, I’m cool with that.”

Thor was crying now. Jane was slowly making her way over to where they were huddled on the ground. Loki was just lying there, breathing heavily and trying to stay conscious.

“Malekith got away,” Tony told Jane. He looked at her and Thor. “I think you two should go after him.”

Jane looked a little startled. “What, and just leave you guys here? Loki’s dying!” Thor made a little whimpering noise at that.

Tony looked down at Loki. “You got up and walked only like half an hour after getting Hulk-smashed through my penthouse floor. Think you’ll be able to tough this one out?”

After a few pained gasps, Loki responded, “Possibly.”

“Cool. Good enough. Thor, go kick that piece of shit’s ass for me,” And Tony helped maneuver Loki in Thor’s arms until Thor lowered him to the ground. (Loki was a lot heavier than he looked.) And then Tony shooed him away. “Go. Go on, you’ve got a crazy elf to deal with. I’ve got Rock of Ages, here.”

“How are we gonna get there?” Jane asked, looking at the small ship they stole.

Loki groaned. “Oh… Right…” He lifted his still shaking hands and with a small wave, the Tesseract appeared in his grasp. “Just hold onto me and I’ll transport us.”

“Even like this?”

“Loki, please, do not over-exert yourself.”

“Thor, if you wait any longer I will leave you behind,” Loki hissed, clearly still in a lot of pain. Thor dropped down, touched his hand to Loki’s chest, Jane followed quickly, and then suddenly they were on the ground in the middle of what looked like Earth. Immediately after transporting them, Loki lost consciousness. His hands were resting over the tesseract, but they fell limp as his energy left him.

“Watch over my brother, Stark!” Thor shouted, rushing toward what sounded like a battle in the distance. Jane hurried after him.

Tony was already calling JARVIS and having a few of his suits fly to him. Apparently they were in Greenwich in the UK. Who woulda guessed?

“It has been quite eventful while you were gone, sir,” JARVIS said as his suits sped across the ocean.

“Yeah?” Tony smiled. “You’ll have to update me later. Right now we have a half-dead god to take care of.”

“Loki, sir?”

Tony laughed. “Aw, how’d ya guess?”

“It was a fifty-fifty shot, sir.”

“God, I missed you Jarv.”

Three of his suits landed around him and Loki moments later, which he was thankful for. A crowd had already gathered to see what was going on with Malekith. Thor showing up made the crowd bigger. And then when people recognized him, and Loki, they were starting to edge toward him. He could see people pulling out their phones and he quickly punched a code for JARVIS to short out all of them. Footage of Thor fighting a bad guy was fine. Footage of him cradling what looked like the dead body of the man who literally just tried to take over the world like a year ago? Not fine.

His suits had surrounded the two of them and were both keeping them and their ‘guests’ safe, as well as keeping the onlookers from coming too close to either of them. Tony had no idea how Loki would react when he woke up. If he was like Tony after having nightmares, he might jump up and attack the first thing he could. He’d rather have that first thing be himself than some innocent university student. 

* * *

Thankfully, when he woke up, Loki did not immediately lash out or try to kill him. He flinched violently, then went ramrod straight. Tony had jumped a little when Loki flinched, but smiled when he noticed his fingers tightening their grip on the tesseract.

“Not one of your daggers, Houdini.” Loki’s eyes finally opened at the sound of his voice, and it was clear that he needed a moment to remember what was going on. Tony just raised his hands in a peaceful gesture and said with a grin, “Oh, please, don’t get up on my account.”

As Loki pushed himself up into a sitting position, he grimaced and groaned a little bit, one hand coming up to rub over where the hole in his chest had been. He looked around at the suits, all facing away from them, and glanced beyond at the small crowd of people watching them. “Is Thor still fighting, I gather?”

“Yeah,” Tony said, turning his head. “It’s been kind of quiet for a couple minutes now, though, so I think things are winding down.”

“Good to hear,” Loki mumbled, finally sitting up properly. Tony was watching over in the direction of the last noise he had heard when JARVIS beeped a notification at him in his ear. When he turned his head again, Loki was gone.

“Loki?” He quickly got to his feet, noted the tingle in them after having been kneeling for so long, and looked around. Now he was actually a little worried. “Loki?!” He called out again, looking around. When nothing happened, he inhaled sharply. “Jay?”

“There are no traces of Loki anywhere in the next fifty miles, sir,” JARVIS answered, “It appears he’s gone.”

“Again,” Tony finished. Running his hand through his hair, Tony sighed. “Thor’s gonna fucking kill me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> rip tony for like the seventh time, lol
> 
> ((((Was anyone gonna tell me you can add notes to bookmarks, Or was I just supposed to find that out myself?????? HELLO? AO3 why don't you have instructions- I didn't freaking know that!!!!!!!!!))))


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :))))))
> 
> :)))))))))))))))))))

Thor, thankfully, did not kill him. He was disappointed and sad that Loki had left again, but he was happy to hear that he seemed to be fully healed. Jane was fine, if not just a little bit sleepy still, after her ordeal. The three of them decided they wanted to go take several long naps.

Didn’t get to happen, though.

JARVIS interrupted them on their flight back home. (Yes, they took a normal jet instead of the suits. They were all tired, damnit!) “Sir, I have updates for you.”

Tony groaned. “Can it wait until after I’ve had my eight hours?”

“I’m afraid not, sir.”

“Ugh, fine… What is it?”

“Captain Rogers has gone rogue while you were away.”

All three of them sat up straight at that. “We were gone for like six days!” Jane shouted. “What do you _mean_ he’s gone rogue!?”

JARVIS took a moment to bring up a screen for them all. Showing Steve fighting with agents that looked like they were either part of SHIELD or Hydra. The footage even showed him fighting off Agent Romanoff at one point, which, wow.

“He left a message for you, sir, before he left. He says Director Pierce is not to be trusted.”

“Fuck,” Tony whined, rubbing his hand over his face. “Fucking Hyrda. God damn.”

“So where is he?” Jane asked. “Does anyone know?” JARVIS responded in the negative. “Does anyone know why he left?”

“All reports are that he mentioned someone named Bucky and then attacked suspected double agents,” JARVIS said.

“Great,” Tony huffed now, flopping back in his seat. “Is there anything else?”

“No, sir, I’m afraid my scan for the man who stopped your reactor has come up empty.”

“Of course…” 

* * *

Tony had a couple of nightmares on the rest of the flight home. He hadn’t had any while they were stuck on Asgard, so he was just blaming it on the turbulence. His first nightmare had involved the tiny man that stopped his heart, of course. And then it went into a nightmare about his future self strangling him with his bare hands and after that he stopped trying to sleep.

He called Rhodey instead.

“Hey,” he greeted, once he picked up the other line.

Rhodey clearly had been asleep in bed before he called, but he rubbed his eyes and smiled at his friend. “Hey yourself,” he said. “How was Asgard?”

“Good, good,” Tony replied, rubbing his face a bit, “Intense, actually. We’ve got another infinity stone coming home with us…”

“Another one?”

“Yeah. Thor was gonna have Loki use the Tesseract to take it back to Asgard, but then Loki disappeared an-.”

“Hang on, time out,” Rhodey sat up, holding up his free hand. “Loki was there?”

Tony winced at the tone in his voice. “Did I not mention that?”

“Ah- No, you didn’t.”

“Oh…” He tried to act like it was no big deal, looking over somewhere else as he said, “Yeah, Loki was there…”

Rhodey didn’t say a word, then. He just sat there staring at Tony. His silence eventually made Tony look back at him, and he winced again seeing the look on his face.

“He helped us!” Tony blurted out, more in one word than three.

“What do you mean, _helped_ you,” Rhodey hissed out. “Tony, this is the same guy who nearly killed the whole planet less than a year ago.”

Tony rolled his shoulders, trying to avoid looking Rhodey in the eye. “He, uh… He helped…” He bit his lower lip for a minute, gathering his nerve. Talking to Rhodey about things that could potentially kill him always made Tony nervous. Rhodey turned into a mad mama bear when Tony was reckless. He and Pepper were a terrifying force when it came to protecting the ones they cared about.

“We were trying to figure out what was wrong with Jane and uh… None of us knew, so he used the Tesseract, took us to Asgard, their fancy doctors took a look at her, and then we got attacked by some evil elf aliens.” Rhodey’s eyes had narrowed at him, but he didn’t say anything. “Loki helped us beat them. Oh, my God, Rhodes, there was this guy on Asgard that was super fucking hot. I mean, like, drop dead gorgeous--.”

“ _Tony,_ ” Rhodey warned.

“Oh, fine. Yeah, so Loki helped us beat the elf guys. He almost died, got stabbed through the sternum I think, and I uh… may have helped save his life…?”

“Tony!” Rhodey pinched the bridge of his nose. “You saved the guy that tried to take over the world……?”

“Yes?”

“ _Why??_ ” Rhodey let his hand drop again and just stared at Tony with wide, exasperated looking eyes. Tired of Tony’s constant bullshit, probably.

Tony shrugged, looking away from him again. “Well, I mean… He helped us, so I just… I dunno, he didn’t seem so bad when we were there…”

“Didn’t seem so bad…” Rhodey parroted him, sounding like he didn’t believe him.

Tony nodded. “Yeah, he- well, obviously he was a bit of a dick. That’s a given, right? But, really, he wasn’t so bad. He ditched me in the library once, but he saved Jane’s life- twice I think. And well, Thor was just so happy having him around. What was I supposed to do, Rhodey? Let Thor’s baby brother bleed out in front of me when I could have helped!?”

Rhodey inhaled, closed his eyes, and exhaled very, very slowly. “Tony. When you get back, we are definitely having a talk about this.”

“I wish we wouldn’t.”

“We are. And you’re going to listen to me while I explain to you that saving his life was a stupid decision.” Rhodey fell quiet for a minute after that. When he finally spoke again, it was a new topic. “You hear about Cap?”

“Yeah,” Tony said with a sigh. “Jay told us. What the hell happened?”

Rhodey shook his head. “Bruce probably knows more than I do. He’s gonna come to the tower in a few days. You can ask him about it. All I know is SHIELD is pissed and no one can find him.”

“Fuck…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hung up drywall today
> 
> it was actually kind of fun
> 
> :)


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Juicy.

Landing back at the tower, all Tony had wanted to do was sleep. But Pepper was waiting for him with a pile of paperwork that needed his signature. Most of the time she could just sign and that was fine, since she was the CEO, but every now and then things needed his signature since he owned the damn company.

“Oh, God, Pep, can’t this wait?” He groaned, plopping into the barstool as she slid the stack to him. He motioned to where Jane and Thor were walking away. “Look, Thor and Jane get to take a nap! Why can’t I?”

“You can,” Pepper said, smiling at his antics. “Once you’ve finished signing these papers from the week you were gone.”

“Uuuggghhhhh…”

She stayed with him for half an hour after he finished, just checking up with him and making sure he was okay. Off handedly she mentioned all the blood he had on him, which woops, Tony had forgotten about that, but he explained he had been fighting freaky elf aliens. He conveniently left out all the Loki details. That would be for another day, one where he hadn’t already been yelled at by Rhodey.

He stopped halfway to his bed room. Now that he thought about it, Fury would be absolutely _fuming_ if he found out they had been with Loki and none of them tried to catch him or turn him in. “Shit,” he hissed. “Jay?”

“Yes, sir?”

“When Jane and Thor wake up, let them know to keep mum on the whole Loki thing until we have a chance to talk about this. SHIELD would have our heads if they knew we had the chance to catch him again and didn't.” Tony waited for JARVIS to confirm, nodded once he did, and then dragged himself to his shower to clean up. As tired as he was, he didn’t particularly want to go to sleep covered in Loki’s blood. (Or anybody's blood, really. Sleeping in blood was gross.)

Scrubbing himself off, Tony had half a mind to wonder just how much Loki could recover from. Yeah, he had made the quip about both of them surviving getting a hole in their chest, but a wound like that would absolutely have been fatal for a normal human. He was pretty sure at least one of Loki’s lungs had to have been pierced or at least sliced. He shuddered as he wondered if maybe his heart had been hit as well. It would explain why he had so much fucking blood on him. Christ, he felt like he had been scrubbing his arms for an hour!

The minute he was clean and relatively dry, he flopped into bed. Clothes could wait until he wasn’t dead tired.

He only ended up sleeping two and a half hours. A phone call woke him up. Fury had apparently heard they returned with an energy source that was strikingly similar to the energy of the Tesseract. Tony screamed into his pillow. Of course Fury was scanning the ship and the tower.

“Jay, tell him I have to put pants on, but I’ll talk to him in a bit. If he wants, he can come here personally and Thor and Jane can show him that we, in fact, _do not_ have the Tesseract again.” Tony was already pushing himself to his feet, grimacing at the ache in his bones. He was so tired. Why couldn’t people just let him sleep?

“He says he will be here within an hour, sir,” JARVIS said, “And that he sincerely hopes you do put on pants.”

Tony picked out a pair of pink sweatpants just to spite Fury. It took him a minute to remember which spot he had stuff them into. It had been for a cute press moment. He and Pepper had gone out wearing matching jogging outfits for Valentine’s Day. Turning the sweatpants around, he grinned as the word “Juicy” stared back at him. Oh, yeah, the perfect pants for a meeting with Fury.

When he went into the penthouse, Darcy was standing beside Jane, sipping a drink that smelled like cotton candy, Jane was eating a bowl of cereal, and Thor was on the couch with Selvig. (It looked like Thor was still dozing. Looks like the others couldn’t let them sleep long either.)

As he walked to the coffee maker, Darcy commented, “Cute sweats.” He winked over his shoulder at her.

“I’m pretty sure I have a pair just like that,” Jane commented. “Victoria’s Secret?”

“You know it, babe,” Tony said, picking up his fresh cup. “I’ve got a meeting with Fury in an hour. I wanted to look my _best_.”

“I like it.”

“You look hot,” Darcy said, giving him a thumbs up. “Really great butt.” After that, she turned back to Jane to keep asking her questions about Asgard.

“Oh, speaking of Asgard,” Tony interrupted, “Am I the only one who thought that Heimdall guy was attractive as hell?”

Jane laughed at him, Darcy looked confused, and Thor woke up at the name Heimdall, confused. “He was pretty good looking,” Jane admitted. “But looking at his eyes for too long gave me a headache.”

“Girl, if you were looking at his eyes, you were doing it wrong.”

“Tony, you’re horrible,” Jane teased, grinning at him.

Tony shrugged. “I like pretty things, sue me.”

“I could, you know,” Darcy said. “I have reasonable cause to sue you and win.”

“I could just give you free money and save you the trouble,” Tony said. “What’s your complaint, Darce?”

Darcy didn’t even seem to think about it. “I want a veil thing to hang over my bed with gemstones in it.”

“Jay, put it on the list.”

“Right away, sir,” the AI said. “Also, Nick Fury is pulling up just out front as we speak.”

“Ooh, good! Can’t wait to show him my ass!” 

* * *

Thor had to explain the infinity stone thing again, which sucked, but Fury did eventually give in and accept that they didn’t have the Tesseract. (Thor had used a metal… thing that Loki had apparently given him when Tony wasn’t paying attention and the stone wiggled right in and seemed very happy to stay there.) Fury desperately wanted to study the ether, though. It took a lot of bargaining before Tony agreed that Fury could send a team he trusted to a location of _his_ choosing where he could monitor them to let them study it.

“I take it you’ve heard about Captain Rogers, then,” Fury huffed as he listened to Tony’s terms.

“If Captain America can’t trust SHIELD, then I don’t really think I can either,” Tony said, arms crossed over his chest. “I know you’re trying to help, Fury. I know it’s probably a lot to try and sort out the good from the bad, but until you guys have it all under control, I don’t want to risk any more than I have to.”

He offered a pained smile after that. “I’ve had my fair share of betrayals. I hope you’ll allow me the precautions, on this one.”

Fury’s one good eye lowered to his reactor, as Tony expected it would. You wanted an example of betrayal? There was the aftermath, shining bright in the middle of his chest.

“Fine, Stark… Where do you want them to go?”

“Here. My tower. Where JARVIS can keep an eye on them from every angle.” Tony stood firm in this. He wanted to keep track of all of it. The tower was the safest place to do so.

Fury looked like it physically hurt him to do so, but eventually he agreed. Thor and Jane told him some more about what happened in both Asgard and in Greenwich, but thankfully neither of them mentioned Loki. (Though Thor nearly slipped twice.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I drew tony in the outfit from this chapter and posted it but then the depression hit after getting a whopping 2 likes on it and I deleted like 50 of my posts and haven't really done anything on social media since.  
> Doesn't exactly make you feel good about yourself if you work for hours on something and nobody even acknowledges it.  
> So that's why I've been depressed lately.
> 
> Anyway- this was another chapter of Tony being Tony.


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tony forgets he's a genius
> 
> Rhodey and pepper remind him
> 
> and thor is more observant than the others give him credit for

When Bruce came to the tower, he was welcomed with a big hug from Tony and an apprehensive smile and wave from Thor. (Which kind of made sense. Thor probably knew Hulk a little better than Bruce after all the fighting.)

Jane introduced herself to Bruce, said it was lovely to meet him, Selvig said his hellos, and then Darcy asked what would happen if she tazed him.

“Please don’t,” Bruce said gently. “I don’t think it would end well, to be honest.”

“But we could test it for the science.”

“Darcy, no,” Jane scolded.

“We have got to take her Taser away,” Selvig whispered to Jane then.

Tony just turned back to Bruce. “So, Rhodey says you have some news on this whole rogue Cap thing?”

Sighing, shoulders slumping, Bruce nodded. “I don’t know the full story,” he started, making his way over toward the counter to lean against it. “Steve didn’t tell me everything. But apparently when he was fighting… Future Steve. He uh, he mentioned someone named Bucky. Future Steve, did, I mean. This is hard… Anyway, I guess he was someone Steve knew back during the war.” He rubbed at his wrist absently as he spoke, almost like a nervous tick. “I guess this guy meant a lot to him, because he was really upset. He had me do a bit of digging and eventually I did find something. It wasn’t much, but it was a picture.”

He flicked his fingers toward the TV screen. “JARVIS could probably find it right now, actually. It was just one picture. A guy with long brown hair, in a research lab with a bunch of doctors and scientists from the eighties…” As he spoke, JARVIS brought up the photo. “Yeah, that’s the one.”

In the center of the frame, lying unconscious on what looked like a hospital bed, was the brown haired man. His body was completely covered by a sheet, but there was an IV attached to him and a machine that clearly showed his heartbeat. The scientists all around him looked somber, posing for the photo. Like they didn’t want it to be taken.

“It wasn’t in SHIELD’s files,” Bruce said. “I just found it, trying to look up his friend. And… when I pulled that picture up… That was it.”

“What do you mean?” Jane asked.

Bruce pointed to the unconscious man. “That’s him. That’s Steve’s friend. Steve saw him and he went nuts.”

“I recognize a few of those scientists,” Selvig said. “Almost all of them are dead.” He pointed at two men on the left. “Those two are Russian biologists. Or, were. They both passed in ’93. That man there,” he pointed to a man with thick glasses and dark hair. “He was an engineer from Belarus. Brilliant man. Made prosthetics for soldiers returning from the war. Years ahead of his time.”

“Do you know anybody else?”

Selvig shook his head sadly. “No, just those three… But they don’t tell us much about what happened to this guy.”

“It gives us a start, though,” Tony commented. “He was somewhere near Russia in the eighties. Maybe in a bordering country.”

“Yeah, but that was like, the Cold War thingy, right?” Darcy asked. (Tony told her, technically she was wrong but she kept going.) “Wouldn’t Russia have just killed him if he was an American?”

“They may have been studying him,” Bruce suggested. “I mean, he’s a man who by all accounts should be in his late sixties by that point in time, but he looks like he might be twenties or thirties in the photo. That doesn’t just happen normally.”

“Good theory, Brucie,” Tony hummed.

Thor was the one to speak next. He walked up to the picture and pointed to a man farther in the back. “Forgive me, but… Is that man there not the Pierce man you introduced me to?”

JARVIS enhanced the photo immediately and Tony cursed out loud.

“Son of a bitch.” 

* * *

“Well, I guess the positive thing here is we know why Steve said we couldn’t trust Pierce,” Tony huffed, rubbing his forehead. Pepper and Rhodey were both with him right now. He had gone through all the details of everything. Everything that happened in Asgard, everything that happened with Steve, and everything that happened with Loki. Rhodey was still pissed he helped the guy, but he said he probably would have done the same thing if he had been in Tony’s shoes. (Thor was a BIG guy!)

“Yeah, but Tony,” Pepper said, making him raise his head to look at her. “If we can’t trust Pierce, then we have every reason to believe we can’t trust anyone in SHIELD. He’s the head of the whole thing, isn’t he?” (Shockingly, Pepper had been less worried about Loki than Rhodey had and was more concerned that there was a murder-rock in the basement.)

“Technically he’s like one of the head chairmen, but yeah. I know, it sucks.” Tony groaned. “I don’t know if Fury knows or if Fury’s part of this.”

“He seemed really genuine when we first found out about the whole thing,” Rhodey said. “I mean, you remember, he was calling everybody he could the second we had any suspicions.”

“Until we can prove without a shadow of a doubt that we can trust him, though, we have to be cautious,” Pepper said. “I don’t want any of the scientists he’s sending going anywhere near you, Tony.”

“Me?”

“Yes, you.” Pepper smiled a little. “For how often you say it, sometimes you forget that you’re a genius.”

Tony smiled back at her then. “Aw, Pep, you’re gonna make me blush.”

She rolled her eyes then. “I’m serious, Tony. We both remember Afghanistan… I don’t want to lose you for another three months like that. Hell, with guys like this it could be years before anyone finds you.”

“And by then there might not be anything left to find,” Rhodey said.

“Cheerful, Platypus.”

“We do rescue missions a lot, Tony,” Rhodey said, trying to be gentle and failing. “Even if we find guys alive, if they’ve been held captive for years, they’re usually crippled so bad they can hardly breathe or so mentally destroyed that it takes us years just to get them used to normal life again.” He motioned to the room around them with all of its tech and said, “And, no offense, but your life is a far cry from normal. Who knows how long it would take to get you back to some semblance of healthy.”

Tony groaned. “I guess I didn’t think about that… Fuck… All right, so then who should be around to monitor them? Should we even let them come in here?”

“I vote Bruce.”

“Really, Pep?” Tony gave her an unimpressed look.

She didn’t seem bothered by his look. “He’s the best choice. He’s smart. He knows almost as much as Tony does about all this infinity stone stuff. And if they try to hurt him, he has a back-up protection in the form of the Hulk.”

“Hulk doesn’t kick in automatically, though,” Tony said. “It takes him a minute. If they knock him out before Hulk takes over, he could be toast.”

“All right, so we send Thor in with him.” Pepper had an answer for everything. “Double the eyes watching, double the power-house to stop them if they try anything.”

Staring at her for a moment, Tony looked to Rhodey. “Honestly, that’s better than literally any of the ideas I came up with,” Rhodey said.

“It’s decided, then.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yes I had 20+ pages of this already written up on my word document   
> yes i'm still writing it  
> what do you mean write and post as I go? does that mean have thirty pages written before you post the first chapter? I think it means have thirty pages written before you post the first chapter.


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Y'all ready for some Tony and Thor bonding time?? Because it's happening!  
> (Also, movie night)

Thor was fine with watching the scientists. Bruce was nervous, afraid he might accidentally kill somebody, but agreed to it nonetheless. Thor comforted him and said he could handle Hulk if anything went wrong. (Bruce looked... less than convinced.)

Tony had only watched them for about an hour before he decided they could handle the team of scientists and started doing more searches for the Ant Man. There had been no other sightings of a duplicate Tony Stark or Captain America since the attack on New York. And even then, no one had thought they were duplicates. He was hitting a lot of walls, it seemed.

Selvig gave him a bit more information on the scientists from the photograph and Tony was able to do some research on them. Hydra agents. Part of the original organization. So, obviously, they had worked directly under Red Skull. (They must have barely been teenagers!) He winced. If Steve’s friend had been found by these guys, he could only imagine what happened to the man.

He couldn’t find anything beyond the Hydra information he did. Even for JARVIS, it was too encrypted to go through in a day. He would have to sit down and sort through what else he had for at least a weekend if he wanted to make progress. Half of him wondered if SHIELD had anything in their files. He’d need to get inside and get JARVIS in manually if he wanted to try.

“Hey, Darcy and I are going out for a bit.” Tony looked up at Jane’s voice. She and Darcy both had bags and boots on.

“Girls’ night?” Tony asked, smiling a little.

Darcy huffed. “I wish. Jane wants to go check out the swamp thingy a few blocks down the street.” Jane said it was a park, but Darcy ignored that.

“Have JARVIS drive you, then,” Tony said. “He can keep the car ready for you and he can recommend places nearby if you get hungry or wanna get a massage or something.”

“See, Jane? _He_ gets it! You just got back from _space_ \- you should be relaxing!”

Jane rolled her eyes at Darcy’s whining. “Darcy, Tony is working too.”

Darcy did a double check on Tony’s screen, sure enough- working on the Hydra stuff- and groaned. “You science types are all the same. I swear, me and Thor are the only sane ones here!”

“What did Thor suggest for today’s activities?”

“Eating!” Darcy shouted, throwing her arms wide. “After he and Bruce finish babysitting he said we should all do a movie night and just fucking stuff our faces!”

“He didn’t say it exactly like that,” Jane said when Darcy finished. “But he did say a movie night would be nice and that he did want more of the pot stickers you ordered two weeks ago, Tony.” (Thor had eaten three whole cartons all by himself.)

Tony couldn’t help himself, he was smiling. “You know, what? That actually sounds really nice.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. You’re right, Darce, we should be relaxing. We’ve been through some serious shit.” After Tony said that, Darcy let out a loud whoop and positively _chucked_ her bag across the room. It crashed into a gaudy vase that Tony didn’t like.

“Oh, uh, I broke your thingy,” Darcy said, pointing over at the shattered remains. Tony only smiled and told her not to worry about it. 

* * *

The movie night had been so nice. Exactly what the doctor ordered. (Tony may or may not have fallen asleep half way through the first movie. He would neither confirm nor deny that.)

Bruce had a whole bowl of popcorn to himself because he didn’t like lots of salt on it. Thor ate five containers of pot stickers by himself, then ate half of the popcorn he and Jane were sharing. He tried a handful of the kettle corn Selvig was eating but judging by the face he made after he ate it, he didn’t like it.

Tony woke up in the middle of a conversation between Bruce and Selvig.

“I can remember when we used to watch this stuff and think it would never happen,” Selvig was saying. Tony looked at the screen and smiled to see Star Trek.

Bruce laughed. “Which parts? The alien parts or the technology parts?”

“Both!” Selvig was grinning. “When I grew up, people still thought robots were out of our reach! And well,” he motioned to where Thor was sitting with Jane, “We’ve all seen the alien thing for ourselves now haven’t we?”

“Hey, speaking of- Thor, how is it you’re not crushing my couch?” Tony asked, looking to the thunder god. “I mean, you weigh like five hundred pounds.”

“Does he?” Darcy asked. “Would never have guessed.”

Thor was confused and clearly didn’t understand what they meant. “I think it’s some sort of density thing,” Tony said. “Loki was heavy as shit, too.”

“Jane, I don’t know how he doesn’t crush you in bed,” Tony said. Jane threw a pillow at him for it. Darcy laughed.

Thor was a bit red in the face, but he did say eventually, “Jane sleeps on top of me. If we are side by side, we use a pillow so I do not roll over and hurt her by mistake.”

Tony couldn’t help but smile and hold a hand over his heart. “Not what I meant, Point Break, but that’s very cute.”

“You’re _horrible_ , Tony,” Jane hissed at him.

“I do what I can.” 

* * *

Thor and Bruce had been babysitting the scientists for a little over a week now. So far it didn’t seem like there was much progress on that front. Tony hadn’t made much progress on either of his two problems, either. It seemed like nobody was making progress besides Jane. (And maybe Darcy if you counted going on dates as progress.)

Currently eating a blueberry muffin that he had swiped during a meeting with Pepper, Tony was lounging by himself, scanning through articles with JARVIS to see if any news of Cap had come up recently.

He was startled when he heard a knock on his open door. Looking up, he smiled when he saw it was just Thor.

“You don’t have to knock, big guy,” he said, beckoning him over, “Come on in. What’s eatin’ ya?”

Thor made his way over to the empty seat across from Tony. Once he plopped himself down, he fidgeted for a moment.

“You okay, big guy?”

After a moment, Thor looked up at him. “I… have spoken with Lady Pepper about this, and while she tells me you do not like to speak of it, she also tells me she won’t say anything and it is not her place to… But…” Tony saw his eyes flicker down, and he immediately knew what this was about.

“You wanna know about my reactor?”

Thor grimaced, but nodded. “You said to Loki… that you had someone cut a hole in your chest…” He inhaled and exhaled a little loudly. “I had tried to put it out of my mind, but all this time I thought it was just… stuck to you… helping from the outside… I did not realize…”

Thor fell silent, so Tony smiled and finished for him. “You didn’t realize it was actually _inside_ my body?”

“Yes…”

Rubbing the back of his neck, Tony sighed. “Yeah… Pepper was right, I don’t really like to talk about it, but… You deserve to know what exactly it is.” He tapped the reactor in his chest a couple times before deciding to lift up his shirt and show it to Thor. At the sight of all the scarring around it, Thor’s face twisted into a pained expression.

“When you zapped me the day Loki took the cube,” Tony said, “Yes. You did save my life. This thing has a magnet inside it and if the magnet stops, it either stops my heart as well or my heart immediately gets stabbed.” He had JARVIS bring up the X-Ray images of his chest that he had. He pointed to some shapes that were visible even through the reactor embedded in his chest. “See those…? Those little spots are tiny shards of metal. They’re basically right on top of my heart, constantly trying to move through my body and pierce it.”

“And this… magnet… It holds them in place?”

“Yeah. The magnet stops them from moving. They’re still there and it’s a constant discomfort, but I’ve grown so used to having it around that sometimes I don’t even think about it.” Thor looked like he was going to cry as he listened to him. “But, yeah… In order to put this thing in me… The, uh… the doctor had to… Well, he had to cut me open.”

Thor was quiet for a moment. “When did this happen?”

“Like, four years ago,” Tony replied. “I was… I was kidnapped and held for ransom… Of sorts.” Thor looked confused. “The men who took me wanted me to build weapons for them. If I refused… they… they tortured me.” Now Thor sucked in a sharp breath. “They didn’t like, cut me up or anything like that. They… well, they would shove my head under water and hold it there until I was half drowned. When they pulled me out, they let me only just empty my lungs and then they’d do it again.” He smiled bitterly. “As you can probably guess, I have a hard time swimming now.”

Thor stood up and before Tony could ask what was up, Thor was pulling him up into a hug. He squeezed him around the shoulders a tiny bit and whispered to him that he was sorry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TONY AND THOR ARE FRIENDS, MARVEL. Thor would never choke Tony- he cares about him!!! >:(


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Saw the new Godzilla today.  
> Super good.  
> WE FINALLY GOT THE GODZILLA THEME SONG BACK, You guys have no idea how happy I am about that. After the 2014 Godzilla all I wanted was that theme song. It's so good.
> 
> Also, the movie has left me with this meme:: "Friendship ended with Rodan. Now Mothra is my best friend."  
> Mothra is my number one bitch now. She always has been, but still.

There was a new understanding between he and Thor after that. Maybe even a new respect.

Thor had already been afraid of hurting him after the incident with the tiny man, but now he knew that his fragile human friend was stronger than he had ever realized. It was like hanging out with a giant, blond version of Rhodey, honestly. There was a fierce protectiveness, but at the same time he knew Tony wasn’t completely helpless.

Darcy had looked at the footage from the incident in New York and every now and then she would watch it again. When Bruce had asked her why, she said it was just really funny to watch this big elaborate plan get fucked by the Hulk yelling about stairs.

“I mean, look at that,” she said, pointing and laughing. “The older Tony gets shoved on his ass because the Hulk threw a tantrum!” Bruce looked embarrassed at that.

“How’s the search been in finding the guy in the tiny suit?” Jane asked Tony.

He sighed. “Not good. We’ve only got half his face in each shot, and the helmet he wears obscures the rest of the shape of his head. JARVIS can only do so much with re-construction. Unless we can get a voice match, we’re probably not gonna find this guy.”

“He’s not gonna know what you’re talking about even if you do find him,” Darcy said. “You know that right?”

“Yeah, we know, but it would be nice to know how this guy got that tech and what type of person he is.” 

* * *

Tony and Thor had worked together to finally create a stable container for the mind stone. They used bits of metal from Thor’s armor that had been damaged during the battle of New York. And then Thor let them know one morning that his father spoke to him. The Bifrost was repaired.

“So should we stop up there in space and give them one of the stones?” Tony asked. “I’m guessing it’s not really safe to have multiple stones in the same place.”

“No, it certainly is not,” Thor said. He didn’t say anything else after that, though, and Tony had half a mind why.

“Thinking about Loki again?”

Thor sighed before laughing a little.  “Am I really so obvious?”

“Little bit,” Darcy teased. (She liked to come down to the lab when Jane was out doing other science stuff or Selvig was doing his own research or Bruce wasn’t in the tower. She said she liked being around all of them. Made her feel smart.)

“I… I worry for him… He is alone with an infinity stone. Even if his mind were not so damaged, the energy would tempt and harm him.”

“Not to mention it’s like a space homing beacon,” Tony said.

Thor smiled a bit, then. “Oh, being tracked is not something Loki would have to worry about.”

“No?”

Shaking his head, Thor said, “When he is not using the Tesseract, he wills it away into his pocket dimensions as he does with all his weapons. Anyone trying to track the energy of the Tesseract would see its signature bouncing back and forth. Tracking it to one place would not help when Loki can pull it to himself or push it away at will.”

Tony clenched his fists and groaned long and low. “Oh, fuck, you gotta explain how that all works to me sometime. That’s cool as fuck and I need to know how it’s done.” (It also was kind of hot, but that was probably just because Tony found intelligence and knowledge and learning extremely attractive. Seriously, if he hadn’t been so mad that Loki had ditched him in that library, he probably would have spent weeks in there.)

“I’m afraid I would not be a very good teacher,” Thor said. “Loki is the expert on magic. I know only the very basics.”

They decided that Thor, Jane, and Darcy would visit Asgard to deliver the mind stone to them for safe keeping. Tony would stay behind this time and let Darcy go have fun and see the golden realm. He did ask that they bring him back a few books, though.

Tony, Bruce, and Selvig held down the fort at the tower. The three of them were watching all of the news about SHIELD and the fallout going on. Apparently the media had finally caught wind that Captain America was missing in action and had started asking questions. The country was not happy to hear that government officials were essentially fascists trying to take control of the world. There were theories flying around that Cap was killed by Hydra for trying to expose them. That Cap was secretly one of them. That the Avengers weren’t doing enough to try and stop these guys. Typical shit-show. Tony was used to that.

Fury and his scientists had gone silent during all of this. They suddenly stopped all contact. None of them knew how to take that, but they hoped it wasn’t because they were all dead or something like that. Selvig was pretty sure Fury had gone into hiding. Several people had already been arrested after being outed as Hydra agents.

Turns out when plotting to have Tony Stark assassinated, you need to be absolutely certain the people you’re talking to are actually on your side. (Thanks, Agent Romanoff. Tony was very grateful when he got that e-mail from her out of the blue.)

Tony didn’t understand why he was such a big threat to Hydra. Bruce had to verbally slap him upside the head. “Tony, you built the Iron Man suits and cut off their supply of super-weapons. Why do you _think_ they’re trying to have you killed?”

“I dunno, I just assumed they didn’t like my hair.”

“Tony.” Bruce huffed and reached out to ruffle said hair. “You’re one of the brightest minds on the planet. You’re brilliant, you’re rich, and you’re famous. The public listens to you when you talk. They listen to your ideas and you’re seen as a hero. Of course Hyrda wants you out of the way.”

“So I’m like a triple threat?”

“If you wanna look at it that way, sure.” Bruce rolled his eyes at him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Avengers-ing intensifies  
> there is no longer 69 bookmarks and my immature child inside is sad


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm probably not gonna get to update this weekend, so I'm posting one now.  
> Gonna be busy working on drywall and electrical for our basement.  
> And working on top of that just... at my job job…
> 
> Thor gonna be taking a backseat in a minute here, boys.

When Thor and the others came back, the only one who looked happy was Darcy. She handed Tony his books with a bright smile, and went on her way, waving around a decorative sword she must have gotten while she was there.

They sensed the mood instantly.

“What is it?” Bruce asked. “You guys look like someone died. What happened?”

Jane patted her hand against Thor’s bicep. He looked sad as he spoke. “Father is deteriorating,” he said. “He will not admit it, but he is exhausted. His strength is fading and his mind weakens. I fear soon he will not be fit to hold the throne… Mother…” Thor clenched his hands into fists. “Mother will take the throne, but she confided in me that she would require some help… At least to start… She wishes for either Loki or I to rule Asgard with her. Help rebuild after the destruction… Keep treaties with our allies. Stop rising tensions…” He trailed off for a moment.

Thor laughed a little. “Loki would be better at this than I… He has always had a way with words that I never possessed… The meetings and the politics would be best for him…”

“So I take it you have no way to find him and let him know about all this?” Tony asked.

He shook his head. “The only one with the power to reach him aside from father would be Heimdall,” Thor said. “And if Loki is using his magic to shroud himself, even Heimdall cannot find him.”

Bruce huffed. “Great…”

“How long do you think your old man has left?”

“Tony!” Bruce hissed, looking at Tony with wide eyes. “That was rude!”

Tony shrugged, but didn’t feel that sheepish about it. “Sorry,” he said, “My father was never really that touchy feel-y. Not very good at being a dad. Didn’t really leave me with a lot of sentimental feelings for paternal figures.”

“Yeah, we get it, you have daddy issues,” Darcy shouted from where she was play fighting with the sword. “Still a shitty thing to ask!”

Tony groaned. “No, it’s all right,” Thor said. He had a sad smile on his face. “Truthfully, I do not know. I do not think father has much time left at all. He may still live for several more years, but he will not be fit to hold the throne for much longer at all.”

“Yikes.” Tony watched as Thor took a moment to breathe. He held hands with Jane, smiled at her for a moment, and eventually went to sit on Tony’s couch. He looked tired. Everything about him said ‘exhaustion’ and that was enough for Tony to go and sit by his side. He didn’t speak for a minute, just sitting there and twiddling his thumbs. When he finally did speak, he asked, “You want me to order a pizza?”

Thor smiled a little bit there. A little chuckle left him and he replied, “The one with the many meats on it?”

“Meat-lovers? Absolutely, Jay, order us up a few.”

JARVIS did, then asked, “Shall I order some drinks as well, sir?”

“Nothing alcoholic, Jarv,” Tony said. “Right now I think we need unicorn shakes and ice cream sundaes.” Bruce laughed at his drink choices, but agreed that they needed something fun and light after all the sad news. Darcy agreed with him loudly and sprinted to the couch before jumping up and flopping across the two of them.

Once their pizza arrived and everyone was eating, Tony turned to Thor again. “So, I take it while you’re gone we should keep an eye out for baby bro and let him know what’s going on?”

Thor nodded around a mouthful of meaty pizza. “Yes, absolutely.” When Jane made a face at him, he quickly chewed and swallowed his food before continuing. “Mother would love to see Loki again. And if he were to agree to aid her, I’m certain she would be happy.”

“Is it safe for him to do that, though?” Bruce asked. “I mean, no offense Thor, but the last time I saw him he was kind of insane.”

Tony piped up at that. “He was a lot calmer in Asgard,” he said, looking at Bruce. “He didn’t even try to stab me or mind-control me.”

“Loki needs time to heal,” Thor admitted, “But I know mother would be happy just to see him again, even if he did not take the throne.”

“She really loved him, didn’t she?” Selvig asked from the armchair.

Thor nodded. “Of course,” he said, voice quiet and calm, “I am certain that when father brought Loki home to us, she loved him immediately.” 

* * *

When Thor left for Asgard a few days later, he had a long goodbye with Jane and told everyone that they could visit whenever they wanted, just to ask for Heimdall. He promised he would come back and visit as often as he could, but if Odin fell into a sleep his visits would be less frequent.

Jane gave him one last kiss before he backed into an open space on the roof of Stark Tower and was whisked away in a rainbow beam of light.

They got to work almost immediately after he left. Selvig left for a therapy session, something he had started up after Tony told him about his own sessions, and Bruce went to a room to meditate for a bit. It had been a space Tony built just for him. Giant and padded, built with reinforced everything in case he ever needed to Hulk-out, and stocked with a mini fridge and bar space with a coffee maker and electric tea kettle. It had been sitting empty for months after he left. Tony was happy to finally have people living in the tower he made for them. (Even if he was down a thunder god.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There are no longer 69 bookmarks and the immature part of me is sad about that.
> 
> I can't giggle about 69 anymore


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> he has returned.
> 
> he also has returns that he would like his money back for but that's against our store policy, so we have to call the manager to try and get him to calm down and go away.

At this point in his life, Tony really should be used to everyone giving him heart attacks. He just should. It happened so frequently that expecting anything less was just stupid.

Almost two years after the invasion of New York, closer to a year and a half really, Tony had yet another scary moment that had him clutching at his arc reactor.

He had been in the middle of breakfast, eating by himself because it was two in the morning and he hadn’t been able to sleep, when JARVIS suddenly lit up the room and alerted. “Sir, there is someone coming up the elevator.”

Tony blinked and paused mid bite in his egg sandwich. “Do they have clearance?”

“They do, sir.”

“Okay… Why are they coming here at two thirteen in the morning?” Tony asked, a little miffed that his AI was being vague, but proud at the same time because damnit, he made him that way.

“I’m afraid you will have to ask him yourself, sir.”

The elevator doors opened and out stepped Captain America in all his red-white-and blue glory. Tony nearly choked on his food.

Jumping to his feet, knocking over his barstool, Tony moved away from his kitchen island. “Steve!” He couldn’t believe it. There he was. After months of radio silence and no word on his whereabouts, Steve was back! “Steve, what the hell!?”

Quickly Steve hurried forward, putting a finger to his own lips and making a quick “shh” noise. “Shh, shh! Tony, please!”

“What the fuck man!?” Tony whispered this time, instead of shouting like before. “Where the hell have you been!?”

Cap sighed, dropping his hands to his sides. “I’m sorry,” he whispered, “I couldn’t let anyone know where I was. I didn’t want to risk being followed.” He fidgeted for a minute before taking the black bag he had on his back, which how did Tony miss that, and setting it down against his leg. It was obviously the shield, but Tony kept quiet for a minute. Steve’s uniform, though he was only visibly showing the top half of it, was dirty and scratched up in several spots. He had dark pants on over the bottom of the uniform, Tony assumed anyway, and his hair was a bit long and messy.

When he finally spoke again, his voice was quiet. “Can I stay here?” He asked, “Will you be able to hide me?”

Startled for a moment, it took a second for Tony to answer. But he quickly stepped forward. “Yeah,” he answered, putting a hand on Steve’s shoulder, “Yeah, Cap, of course I can.” He just took a minute to look at him after that, smiling. “God, I can’t believe you just fucking waltzed in here… What if I had been asleep?”

He looked sheepish and said, “I probably would’ve just waited out here for you to wake up…” Tony walked him over to his couch and the two of them sat down. “Actually…” Steve chewed the inside of his cheek, “That’s not the only reason I’m here…”

Tony frowned. “This is about that guy, isn’t it?”

Seeming to sense his hesitation, Steve quickly began trying to explain himself, reaching a hand out and looking earnest. “Please, Tony, please. You don’t understand. He’s all I have left- I- I thought everything from back then was gone! No one else would be able to find him! I’ve tried- I don’t- I don’t even know where to start! Please, Tony, he was my best friend. I at least have to try for him! Bucky doesn’t deserve to be forgotten! Even if there’s a chance! I have- I-I-I-!”

Tony raised a hand between them. “Easy, Cap, easy. I never said I wouldn’t do it.”

“So you’ll help?”

He pulled himself away from Cap and stood up, running a hand through his hair. He paced for a moment before exhaling out slowly. “What do you expect me to do, Cap? Perform a miracle?” When Steve started stammering again, Tony held up a finger. “I don’t like to talk about it, but since SHIELD collapsed, I’ve had to do triple background checks and increase security in all of my properties. JARVIS is here in the tower, but at SI there needs to be people to protect Pepper. I can barely trust my own hired bodyguards aside from Happy. Even if I could trust SHIELD, I would need to find a way to manually get into their files and see what they have about this guy. This isn’t going to be easy. Even for someone like me, this is going to take a long time and a lot of effort… And even then I can’t promise you we’ll find him before something bad happens. Or well, _worse_ happens.” He smiled bitterly after he finished, looking back at Steve.

The ex-popsicle had a steely look in his eye. His jaw was set and when he spoke, his voice was strong and steady. “For Bucky, I’ll do whatever it takes.” 

* * *

Re-introducing Cap to the others a few hours later was a treat. Jane and Bruce had both stopped dead in their tracks and Darcy had immediately pulled out her phone. Tony had to tackle her and yank it away so he could explain what was going on. Selvig, the gentleman he was, had walked up and shaken Steve’s hand, saying it was good to see him again.

“We’re gonna help Steve get his friend back,” Tony said once everyone calmed down.

Bruce, who had walked over to greet Cap again, raised a brow. “And how are we gonna do that, exactly?”

“We’ll figure something out.” Tony faked a look at a non-existent watch on his wrist and smirked when Bruce rolled his eyes at him.

Jane, with hands on her hips, said, “Tony, would you just tell us what you’re planning? No one likes a show off.”

“Not true!” Tony whipped his finger up and pointed. “Thor shows off all the time and everybody loves it!”

Darcy laughed at that. “Yeah, because he’s big, muscley, and stupid.”

“He is not stupid,” Jane huffed.

“Jane, he once asked me why people can’t ride dogs when he saw a woman walking a Great Dane down the street.”

“Okay, so he doesn’t understand Earth stuff! That doesn’t mean he’s dumb!”

“Where is Thor anyway?” Steve asked, looking around for a moment.

Bruce answered as he cleaned his glasses. “Back on Asgard, helping his mom and dad rebuild.”

“Rebuild? What happened?”

“Evil elf aliens, crazy murder space rock, you know, same shit, different planet,” Darcy said in reply, making Tony smile. He couldn’t have said it better himself.

The little group all sat around the main living space as they discussed a plan of action and Tony ordered a big lunch. The plan was for Tony to try and get into an old abandoned SHIELD office, Steve would help him find a few of them since he had been working with the organization after the invasion, Bruce would try his best to keep searching ‘the dark web’ for information on Steve’s friend, Selvig would see if he could get in touch with any living scientists from the photo under the guise of being interested in their work, and Jane and Darcy were going to Asgard to ask Heimdall and Thor’s mother if they had anything that might help them find Bucky easier. Tony put his chips on the last option being most helpful. Bucky didn’t have magic like Loki did, surely Heimdall could find him?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> cries in part time job-- I've been busy and tired and work keeps hurting my hip


	21. Chapter 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am ashamed to admit that I had to google Doctor Zola's name because I could not remember what it was for the life of me.  
> I remembered Rumlow- couldn't remember Zola.
> 
> Sad.

Finding a SHIELD base was easy. Getting to it was the tough part. There were three that used to be part of the organization and were abandoned that all seemed like decent choices. Tony went and checked out one in Texas, but it was completely cleared out. Even after scanning it multiple times, he couldn’t find anything. The only thing left in the entire building was a desk and a chair covered in dust.

On to the second one. This one had security around it, so Tony guessed it wasn’t as abandoned as they had originally thought. Scanning from the outside, JARVIS found there were weapons inside and operatives walking around, but nothing seemed really suspicious.

The third location was in New Jersey. Steve said it was a familiar place. Tony knew it too, as much as he hated to say it. His father had a photo of the building with Captain America’s platoon and himself in front of it. It had hung in his childhood dining room for years. (No pictures of _Tony_ hanging in the room, but they just  _had_ to have that photo of Captain America hanging up!)

There was a barbed wire fence surrounding the old military training grounds, but other than a lock on the building, that was it. Tony broke in easily, and before they could even step inside there was the sound of a gunshot and sparks lit up against the hand of Tony’s suit.

“Shit!” They were under attack.

“How did they find us?” Steve asked, ducking behind Tony and his shield.

Firing off repulsor shots, Tony aimed at the many hidden snipers firing at them. Thank god for his body heat scanner. “I guess there was more security than we thought.”

“Oh no,” a sudden voice shouted out, and the gunfire stopped. “No, actually, we had just been expecting you would come here.” And out of the brush stepped an agent that Tony recognized from the elevator. Rumlow, his name was. “Or at least, we were expecting Steve, not so much you, Tony.”

“Why?” Steve, yelling back at him was really not the smartest move.

Rumlow smiled. “Well, at first we had started bringing people back here because we thought you had joined our cause. What with the elevator and all… But then, after things… fell apart, shall we say, we knew you would come looking.”

“Looking for answers or looking for your friend, we knew you would come eventually.” Rumlow had a big grin on his stupid face. “The second we registered Iron Man entering our air space, we were ready for you.”

As he spoke, JARVIS was telling Tony about all the weapons Rumlow had hidden on his person, the bullet proof clothing he was wearing, and the fifty plus operatives hiding among the bushes. He had his suit ready to fire the second things got ugly.

Rumlow had been starting to walk toward them and both of the heroes tensed up. When he stopped, Rumlow’s smile vanished.

“He isn’t here, Steve. He isn’t even alive anymore.”

“You’re lying!” Steve barked at him, face contorted in rage and in pain. “Why else would you be here!?”

“To protect what’s inside,” Tony hissed. “Jarv says there’s an entire hidden underground bunker.”

When Rumlow’s hand started inching toward one of his pockets, they knew they were in for a fight. Sighing a little, Steve looked at Tony and asked, “You ready?”

“Always, Popsicle.” 

* * *

The fight had been draining to say the least. Both of them were breathing heavily, both had cuts and bruises, and as they finally walked inside the bunker, they were dragging their feet.

The room was filled with parts to an ancient, by Tony’s standards, computer. It took up the entire room. Tony whistled when he saw it. “Damn, look at this fucking dinosaur,” he said, running a finger over the dusty shelves.

Both of them were startled when a voice responded to his comment. “I find that insulting.”

Jumping, Tony spit, “Jesus Christ,” and looked around. The many screens in the room lit up, bathing the room in an eerie green glow. It wasn’t long before the code on the screens changed shape and formed a very creepy looking face.

“Doctor Zola?” Steve sounded startled.

“Hello again, Captain,” the voice replied, accent and all. “Nice to see you again.”

“Are… are you alive?” Steve asked, looking around at the computers.

“I uploaded my consciousness into this computer,” Zola responded. “My body may be dead, but this way my brain and my thoughts could live on.”

“That’s weird as fuck…”

Zola made a noise at Tony’s comment. “Ah, the famous Anthony Stark. Jealous? Someone thought of this before you were even out of diapers.”

“I finished potty training when I was one,” Tony quipped, moving along the desk to the smaller screens. There was a USB attachment plugged into the computer, a green light blinking. “You recording us?”

“I am merely sending out your coordinates,” Zola answered. “I know why you are here, Captain,” he said then, choosing to ignore Tony, “I know what you seek. And you will not find it.”

Steve’s whole face was one solid line. He tilted his chin up, but didn’t respond to the bait.

“Sergeant Barnes was both my greatest success,” Zola said, drawing out the ‘s’ on the final word, “And my greatest failure.”

“Shit, Steve, I figured out why he was transmitting our location!” Tony shouted as he scrambled to his feet and tapped at his suit. He opened as much of it as he could, grabbing Steve, yanking him and the shield down with him into an air vent moments before an explosion consumed the entire building. If Zola had any more information for them, they would never get to hear it. As flames raged and rubble crumbled above them, both Steve and Tony were left gasping and choking on dust.

It felt like hours of sweltering, sweaty heat before JARVIS finally let them know it was safe to exit their little safe zone.

Coughing and using his suit’s thrusters to lift a giant chunk of concrete, Tony let out an unhappy groan. The minute they were both free and in the smokey, smoldering air he let out a louder unhappy groan.

Everything that had once been the bunker, computer room, and former military base was nothing but embers and burning chunks of paper and drywall. There were only fragments left of the room they had just been in. But, even with just chunks and pieces, it was still a risk to let fall into the wrong hands. “Jarv, get the Stark cleanup team on this as soon as possible, okay?”

“On it, sir.”

Tony sighed as he looked around them. “Whatever country he stole that air-strike from is gonna be super pissed in the morning.”

“One of ours, sir,” JARVIS supplied. “There are emergency alarms going off in the capitol as we speak and Colonel Rhodes is already attempting to contact you.”

“Let him know we’re all right, Jay.” Tony was going to say more, but stopped himself when he saw Steve standing in the middle of the wreckage, staring at the ground. “Uh, let him know I can’t talk, though. I think Cap’s taking this a little hard.”

“Of course, sir.”

Stepping over wedges of what used to be a building possessed by a dead scientist in a computer was one of the weirdest things Tony had ever experienced. It wasn’t like top five or even top ten, getting alien blood on his body, an invasion, going through a wormhole into space, and meeting a god from an ancient religion were much higher. (He could say he met gods plural, but Odin was a bit of a different level than Thor and Loki. He was like… the God of Gods or something like that.) Still weird, though.

Once Tony finally reached Steve’s side, he rested a hand on his shoulder, but didn’t say anything. He wasn’t sure what _to_ say, to be honest. ‘Sorry’ didn’t really seem appropriate.

“They know I’m looking for him, Tony,” Steve whispered, still staring down at the ground.

“Yeah…”

Steve’s shoulders started to tremble a little bit. “What if they kill him…?” His voice was so quiet, Tony almost didn’t hear it over the crackle of the remaining flames. “What if they already _have_ killed him…?”

“If they had, they wouldn’t be trying so hard to get you to stop looking,” Tony said almost without thinking.

“How can you be sure?” When he lifted his head, Tony could see that Steve’s cheeks were streaked with tears. The crisp, clean lines cutting through all the dirt on his face easily.

Tony offered a pained smile. “You learn to recognize stuff like that in the business world. People have ideas and money that they don’t want you to know about, so they try to deflect as much as possible to get you to stop asking about it.” He turned his head away and looked out at the destroyed fence a little ways away. He could see some bodies- Hydra agents who didn’t make it out of the blast. “Still wanna keep looking for this guy?”

Steve, while wiping his face against his sleeve, nodded. “If there’s even a chance he might be out there… and- and I didn’t… And I didn’t take that chance?” He sniffled for a second, maybe because of the crying or because of the dust and smoke, and said, “I could never live with myself.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> we gon find Bucky soon?  
> maybe?
> 
> I have no idea!
> 
> I got to paint yesterday morning for the first time in weeks!  
> very fun. felt depressed immediately after, but I was happy while I was painting, so that's something.


	22. Chapter 22

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> UPDATE::::::::::::::::::::::::::
> 
> THEY THREW MY OLD LAPTOP AWAY.  
> I sent it to my local geek squad because I can't repair anything---- AND THEY THREW IT AWAY  
> After 30 days of waiting for parts they have an automatic system where they give up and they are SUPPOSED to call to see what steps to take next.  
> THEY DID NOT.  
> I had heard nothing for two weeks and every time I called or went in to ask, nobody had any answers.  
> I called a remote agent and he told me it had been 'junked out'  
> meaning fucking THROWN OUT  
> no one had told me. no one had emailed me. no one had called me.   
> I had. NO NOTICE.  
> Just suddenly "hey yeah, it's trashed now"  
> .  
> I was lucky as all hell because I had backed up all my files beforehand (yay anxiety)  
> if I hadn't- I would have lost everything.  
>  I was reimbursed for my laptop and basically got a brand new one for free, as well as a new mouse because they threw that out too.  
> the agents I talked to told me that wasn't standard procedure and I was supposed to be notified, but that never happened. When I track the repair on my phone it stil lsays its underway.  
> so....
> 
> yeah.  
> that's how my month has been...……..  
>  
> 
> :/

It took hours and three cargo planes to clear out all the rubble and bodies from the site. Tony and Steve both stayed behind until every last piece was cleaned up. When he talked to Rhodey, Tony explained it was a Hyrda incident and they had been able to hack into the missile launch codes. He was already taking care of it, though, as he himself hacked in and gave the new codes to Rhodey to move up the command. (Probably wasn’t the right way to go about national security, but his tech was better and safer than anything else right now. If there was anyone he trusted with codes to nuclear warheads, it was JARVIS.)

When the two of them finally made it back to Avengers Tower, they essentially collapsed on the couch. They had been at the search for weeks and so far all they had to show for it were a lot of bruises and cuts and angry phone calls from the President of the United States. (The nerve. Tony saved his ass less than a year ago, and this was how he repaid him.)

Pepper of course came by to check up on Tony after hearing about the explosion. She was startled to see Steve, but calmed down very quickly. Tony was tempted to say, “that’s my girl” but held himself back.

“We didn’t even have time to hack into their files before we got blown the fuck up, Pep,” Tony told her as he signed some paperwork and let her put antiseptic on some of his uglier wounds. (She had already done the same for Steve, even though he tried to protest.)

Humming, Pepper responded, “Well that’s a shame. I know how much you love hacking.”

“I really do!”

A notification from Bruce popped up an hour after they returned home, saying he heard about the explosion and asked if they were all right. He of course wrote back that they were horribly mangled and Steve was never going to walk again. Bruce didn’t respond, but the ‘read’ notification did show up.

With a sigh, Tony said, “Let’s hope Jane and Darcy have more luck than we’re having right now.”

“Any luck is better than what we’ve got,” Steve groaned from his spot on the couch. He looked like a tired dad sitting over there. Legs propped up on the coffee table, one hand rested on his stomach, the other limp by his side. Tired dad. One hundred percent. 

* * *

 

Heimdall was… well, Tony would say godsend but he technically sort of was a god so he was just a s _end_ send.

When Jane and Darcy returned, they had a detailed description of where Bucky was, according to Heimdall’s eyes. Steve had cried when they said that Bucky was absolutely, one hundred percent alive. The others had to console him. He had just been so happy. Kept whispering that he knew Zola was lying. That he just knew it.

The Gatekeeper didn’t know all the specific state names or anything like that, but he gave them a great description of the coastline, the buildings, and the vegetation around him. He had house numbers on buildings, and told them Bucky was several layers underground. As Jane rattled off information, Tony kept saying to himself, “I could just kiss that man.”

“Yes, we know, Tony, you won’t shut up about kissing him,” Bruce huffed before stuffing a handful of cashews into his mouth. Tony swiped a few for himself.

“I could kiss you too, you know, Bruce.”

“Oh, I’m aware,” Bruce mumbled around the food.

Steve whining a little broke up their little tiff. “Can we please focus?”

“Sure, sure… Jay, can you start up a search of locations that match up to old Eye in the Sky’s specs?” Tony swiped some more cashews.

“On it, sir. I should have a list in just a moment…”

“What would I do without you, JARVIS?” Tony beamed at the nearest camera.

“Use Google a lot more, sir?” JARVIS replied instantly. Everybody laughed.


	23. Chapter 23

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the return of the KING
> 
> and yes, I spelled Pennsylvania right on the first try with no googling needed- ha!

Steve and Bruce had been patrolling around JARVIS’s listed locations for three days. Thanks to Heimdall, they had been able to narrow down locations to a small chunk of Eastern Pennsylvania. Right along the border between the states. Tony had just been happy to hear it wasn’t in New York. He was sick of everything happening in New York.

The two of them would report back with updates on what areas seemed promising and whether they saw anyone that looked suspicious.

Tony had stayed behind in New York to keep working on the company and the team. He kept in touch as much as he could, but unfortunately being the owner of a company meant he actually had to do some work sometimes.

Jane was doing research about running a kingdom, even going so far as having Tony get her in touch with royalty from other countries. She had said she wanted to be ready to help Thor in any way she could. Even if it meant helping run Asgard. Tony hadn’t been sure.

“I just,” he sighed, “I mean… Jane, it wasn’t that long ago that you were thinking of breaking up with the big guy. Now you’re talking about ruling an entire kingdom with him.”

Pausing in her attempt to dial a princess from somewhere Tony couldn’t remember, Jane let her head hang. With a defeated sigh, she set the phone down and turned to face him. She opened her mouth to speak, but stopped and groaned.

“I know you want to help,” Tony said, coming to sit beside her, “But you’ve gotta help yourself too.” He smirked a little then. “At least, that’s what my therapist tells me.”

With a tiny, breathy chuckle, Jane ran her hands through her hair. “I know, I know, Tony. You’re right, I just… I still care about him. He’s the first person I ever really felt in love with, you know?” She began twirling a strand of her hair around a finger. “Yeah, we had a rough patch, but things are better.” Tony made a face at her then. “We are! Honest!”

“What have you been doing?” Tony asked, “Aside from helping me with all my problems and helping Steve-o, I mean…”

“Well, we’ve been hanging out with Bruce a lot,” Jane answered. “We have a lot in common, he and I, and Thor really enjoys spending time with him. The three of us had our own movie night a couple weeks back… You know, before all the craziness happened.”

Tony smiled. “Bruce is great.”

“Yeah, he is,” Jane smiled as well. “He knows just what to say to make us laugh.”

“He’s also a firecracker in bed.”

“Oh, God, Tony, you are absolutely horrid,” Jane said, moving to playfully shove his shoulder. “You have such a dirty mind.”

Tony grinned impishly at her. “Amazing that I get any work done, isn’t it?”

“Yes.

“No one asked you, JARVIS,” Tony huffed up at the ceiling. Jane laughed behind her hand and Tony pouted at her. “Seriously, though, Jane. This is a big burden to put on yourself and I just wanna make sure you really want it.”

She sighed. “I know, I know… I just…”

“If you say that you feel like you owe him, I’m scheduling you a therapy session right now.” 

* * *

It happened to be a random Tuesday afternoon when JARVIS suddenly popped up with a weird energy reading. It was weak and it had only been detected by the satellite on course to orbit Saturn. (Thanks, SHIELD for basically shoving the codes to that out in the open. Tony had to catch everything he could and re-encrypt it all. He was slowly in the process of giving the permissions to Rhodey so he could give them back to the proper authorities.)

Still, when the energy reading had popped up, Tony had taken to carrying around a Stark Pad to read the levels. He walked with the pad in one hand and a sandwich in the other. He went out to the main balcony. You know, the one with the hot tub and grill and stuff.

Mid chew, he asked JARVIS, “What’s this mean, buddy?”

“I’m certain you already—“

“JESUS FUCK!” Tony’s sandwich went absolutely flying, the stark pad very _very_ close to following it. He fumbled and flopped and then watched with big sad eyes as his sandwich fell over twelve stories to the ground. He never saw it hit, but he whined all the same.

Spinning around, Tony turned to his unexpected guest. “ _Lokiiiiii you made me drop my sandwiiiich!!_ ” He paired his whining with a tiny stomp of his feet. Completing the spoiled child throwing a tantrum image perfectly. The look Loki leveled him with was… less than impressed.

“You owe me a new one,” Tony said, still pouting.

Rolling his eyes, Loki turned his attention to the glass railing overlooking the cityscape. He peered down over the edge, as if looking for where the sandwich went.

When he didn’t say anything for a solid two minutes, Tony set the Stark Pad down with a sigh and walked to stand beside him. “Nice to see you’re alive again,” he commented, resting his arms on the railing.

“No it’s not.”

“All right, fine, it’s not,” Tony huffed. “If I could, I would be calling Thor right now so he could properly punch you for leaving again.”

“Better,” Loki hummed, smirking a little bit. His hands were clasped behind his back, and Tony noticed him twitching his fingers in a sort of rhythm. “I see you’ve noticed the energy fluctuations.”

“Seriously?” Tony turned to face Loki better. Loki frowned and turned his head to him, looking confused. “You’re really just gonna start up a conversation like you didn’t almost fucking die before? Just gonna pretend that little episode never happened?”

Loki was silent for a moment. “Is there anything in particular you’re looking to hear?”

Tony scoffed and pushed away from the railing, picking up the pad again. “An apology sure would be nice,” he said, flicking through the readings he had been looking at. When Loki started to speak again, Tony cut over him. “No, no. Not for me. For Thor.”

“Thor?” Loki parroted. “Why in all the realms would I apologize to that—“

Tony interrupted again. “You don’t even know, do you?”

Loki’s face fell. Frowning a little bit, he eventually motioned with one hand and said, “Enlighten me.”

“Thor’s in Asgard.” Tony tucked the Stark Pad under his arm. To his credit, Loki didn’t even look surprised to hear that.

After waiting for Loki to say something and getting nothing, Tony continued. “Odin’s asleep,” he said, “Your mom is trying to run the whole kingdom by herself while Thor helps fix everything.” Loki only looked mildly interested when his mother was mentioned. Other than that tiny twitch of emotion, he remained quiet and stoic. “Do you care?” Tony asked, frowning. “At all?”

“Why should I?” Loki picked at a spot on his sleeve. “Asgard is not my kingdom to rule.”

“They could really use your help.”

“Ha, that’s a laugh,” Loki spit, voice full of venom, “I must say, your jokes are getting better, Stark.”

Now Tony was scowling. “What the hell is your problem?” He moved forward, pushing at Loki’s chest, and only grew more frustrated when Loki didn’t even blink. “Look, you’re not related by blood, but they’re still your family!” Loki scoffed now, looking away and then back at Tony with irritation. “I thought things were different- the two of you were working together in As—“

Now it was Loki’s turn to cut across _him_. “ _Nothing_ is different,” he spat, getting closer into Tony’s space, “Nothing’s changed.” He turned hard on his heel and stomped a few feet away from Tony. His head was pointed up at the sky for a moment before looking down toward his feet.

“Nothing has changed, and as ever, Thor is too blind to see it…”

Against all better judgement, Tony approached the god. When he was only a few steps behind him he asked, “What do you mean?”

Loki looked back at him and seemed to think something over before smiling ever so slightly. It almost looked like it hurt to do. “The warriors three?” He inclined his head. “Surely you remember Thor’s merry band? How _happy_ they were to have little Loki hovering around again? The sweet, _sweet_ words they said to me during our meeting?” It was starting to snap into place pretty quickly for Tony. Loki didn’t have to go on, but he did.

“How the brave and _noble_ Thor stood up for his baby _brother_? How calm and pleased they all were to have my help? Oh, I’m sure you remember them, Stark.” Tony looked down, somewhere near Loki’s left hand. He remained quiet. Loki spoke one last time, however, just to really drive the point home.

“It truly was just like old times,” he hissed, turning around to stalk near the hot tub.

It took Tony a while after that to find his voice. What was he supposed to say? I’m sure your bullies didn’t mean it? I’m sure they’ve changed? Yeah, those sounded like they would go over well. NOT.

When he finally did speak, his voice wasn’t nearly as loud as it had been moments before. He said, looking at Loki’s back, “At least _I_ stood up for you.”

Loki turned his head back to look at him, blinking in surprise for a moment. After a brief moment or surprise, his face softened.

“Yes,” he whispered. “Yes…” He smiled a little bit, then. Just the tiniest amount, but it was there. “Well, I suppose things _were_ different. At least a little.” He gave Tony a mock bow. “I concede your point, Stark.”

Tony huffed, cheeks pink. “You don’t have to be such an ass about it.”

“Perhaps Thor and his merry bunch should spend more time around you,” Loki suggested. “Might finally knock a little bit of sense into their empty heads.”

“Look, I get that you don’t like them and they _clearly_ don’t like you, but you still didn’t have to leave the way you did.”

“Would you prefer I had died, then?” Loki asked, raising a brow and leaning against the outdoor kitchen counter. “Bled out in your arms like a hero, perhaps?”

Tony huffed again, but this time out of frustration. “Look, that’s not what I—“

An alarm suddenly blaring off interrupted them. “So sorry to intrude on this lovely conversation, sir, but there is an urgent message from Captain Rogers and Doctor Banner,” JARVIS intoned calmly.

“Fuck,” Tony hissed, hurrying to where one of his suits was stored. “What is it, Jay?”

“They’ve found the bunker, and are currently under attack.”

As his suit snapped into place over his body, Tony groaned. “Shit, all right. I’ll be there as fast as I can. Sorry, Lokes, it looks like our heart to heart’s gonna have to wait.”

Loki, for his part, only smirked and moved toward Tony. Before Tony could ask what the look was for, Loki had hooked his arm and everything in front of his eyes flashed and bled into each other.

In an instant the Tower was gone and suddenly the sound of gunfire was assaulting Tony’s ears. He gagged and wobbled for a moment, scowled at Loki, and bit out past a burp, “I fucking hate you.” Loki only grinned and spun around to stop an approaching man with a gun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> they're cute~


	24. Chapter 24

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back. Things have been...…. busy. to say the least.

 

Tony blasted an enemy to Steve’s right and flew over top of him to crash into the man with a full shield. He turned around, fired off another blast, and lifted his faceplate to flash a bright smile. “Hiya Cap’n!”

Steve opened his mouth, but before he could speak, Loki shouted out and suddenly a dagger went whizzing past his ear, hitting its mark perfectly and stabbing a man to Tony’s far left directly in the chest.

Looking back at the god for a second, trying to catch his breath, Steve looked back to Tony and asked, “Loki??”

“Long story,” Tony said, snapping the faceplate back down, “I’ll explain later. Jay, point me in the direction of our long lost pal!”

JARVIS rattled off how many floors down Bucky was supposed to be according to Heimdall, but said he was reading multiple heat sources converging in one area. “Fuck, they’re heading to him! We’re not gonna make it in time!”

“I can!” Loki yelled. “How far down?”

“About four floors!”

“That tells me nothing, Stark!” Loki sent a man flying without even touching him.

“Fuck, I don’t know what measurements you go by! It’s between twelve and fourteen meters down, okay!?” Tony got knocked over by a man with something that looked like a giant meat cleaver. “Where did you even _get_ one of those!?”

He had glanced over toward where Loki was, only to see he was no longer there. He hoped the mage had managed to reach Bucky in time. It would be one hell of a situation if they came all this way only to lose him in the end.

Hulk throwing a man clear across the room ended his thinking and Tony sprung back into action.

 

* * *

 

Tony had a broken arm by the end of all the fighting. The other two didn’t look much better, to be fair, but no one else was clutching any part of their body quite so hard as he was his arm.

The instant the last hostile fell to the ground, Cap was sprinting toward the stairs to get down to Bucky’s level. Hulk smashed open the elevator shaft and jumped down it. Tony had to force himself to limp down the stairs, trying to keep his arm from moving too much. He already had JARVIS calling up Fury and began to relay what had happened as he hobbled down flight after flight.

“Jarv says Bucky’s still alive,” he told Fury. “I don’t know if you happen to know any good therapists to help deal with whatever problems I’m sure he’s gonna have?”

Fury scoffed on his end and only offered up a few ideas to start on.

When he finally reached the level the others were on, Hulk was already gone and Bruce was back. He, Cap, and Loki were all surrounding a man in a chair. Cap was on his knees in front of him and appeared to be holding the man’s hand and sobbing. Bruce had a hand on Cap’s shoulder in comfort and Loki was just watching them but looked up when he heard Tony scuffling across the floor.

“How’s he holding up?” Tony asked, motioning weakly with his good arm.

Loki glanced at Steve for a moment before looking back to Tony with a shrug. “I had to induce sleep,” he said once Tony reached them, “While I took care of our foes, to ensure he was not a hindrance to our efforts.”

“Nice bedside manner, Lokes.” Tony could see the way Bucky was chained to the chair. His feet were even bolted to the floor under bars of metal. He was held completely immobile. What had Hydra done to him to make him such a threat? Once he finished looking him over, Tony asked Loki, “Is he gonna be okay when he wakes up?”

“He should be fine, if a little drowsy,” Loki replied. “I’ve used the spell on myself plenty of times.”

“Well, yeah, but you’re mister Godly, remember?” Tony huffed. “He’s just a normal guy.”

Loki rolled his eyes and with little more than a flutter of his fingers, Bucky began to wake. His eyes shifted under the lids before blinking open a few times. He stared at the ceiling for a brief moment before slowly letting his gaze track the room and them in it. (Tony immediately recognized it as tracking. Memorizing the location. Searching for weak-points. Bucky knew he was a caged animal and was looking for a way out.)

But the sharp gleam to his eyes flickered out of existence at the feeble little noise Steve made as he whispered out, “Bucky?”

Piercing blue eyes landed on Steve’s face and Tony watched his brows furrowing as Bucky tried to remember why he remembered the man. He opened his mouth, closed it, and opened it again before speaking. “Who… who are you?” He asked, voice raspy and cracking.

“It’s me- it-it’s me, Buck. It’s Steve.”

Bucky’s head slipped back a bit from where he had been leaning forward to look at him. He shook his head slowly. “I… No, I don’t know you. I… I’m not…” He looked like it was physically hurting him to think. “Why do I know you…?”

It was at that point that Tony silently asked Loki to put him back to sleep. Steve looked crushed when Bucky’s eyes fell shut again.

“No!” He wailed, standing up, wiping tears from his cheeks. “No, wake him back up!”

Tony and Bruce both put their hands against Steve’s chest. (Well, Tony only had one hand to put on him, but either way…) Bruce spoke gently. “Steve, this is going to be very hard for him. And for you, but we really need to focus on him right now okay?” He made a gesture to the rest of the room. “Look at this place. He might not even think any of this is real right now. If we’re going to try and rehabilitate him, we need to get him somewhere safe… Somewhere that doesn’t make him want to lash out.”

“He could borrow the Hulk zone,” Tony offered. “At least temporarily.” Bruce nodded his agreement and looked at Steve.

It took a moment of sniffling before Steve nodded as well and gave up the fight. He let Bruce take hold of him and pull him away from Bucky. Tony proceeded to grab Loki and yank him closer to the unconscious man. “Can you pop these open, Reindeer Games?” He pointed to the shackles over Bucky’s feet as he spoke. Loki huffed at the name, but used a flash of green to snap the metal clean in half. He made quick work of the chains around him as well and then stooped to lift Bucky out of the chair.

Once he was in his arms, Loki told them all to wait for a moment and he would come back to retrieve them. When Loki vanished with Bucky, Tony looked at the other two. “Was the jet destroyed when you got here?”

“Pretty much,” Bruce answered, “It’s as good as trashed at this point… Hulk… kinda did a number on the interior.”

“Noted. Jay, destruct sequence on the quinjet.” They heard the distant explosion and then Loki reappeared. He offered a hand to Bruce and Steve and simply pressed his palm against Tony’s chest before transporting them all back to the tower.

When they landed, the pain of his broken arm added onto the dizziness Tony felt and he collapsed to his knees and vomited.

Bruce and Steve looked shocked while Loki looked annoyed. Tony didn’t even see him do anything and the vomit disappeared. Squatting down, Loki pushed his hand against Tony’s forehead, making him look up at him. He was scowling at him. Keeping one hand on Tony’s forehead, Loki let his other hand float in front of Tony’s body. Glowing a faint green, his fingers carefully pressed against Tony’s injured arm.

He didn’t give Tony any warning as his arm began to crack back into place and stitch itself back together. Tony distantly heard someone shouting. He didn’t realize it was him until Loki finally stopped.

“There,” the god huffed, “Now get up.” He turned and began to walk inside after Bruce and Steve.

Whimpering, Tony rubbed his now healed arm and said, “You could have warned me you gonna do that…”

“Ah, yes,” Loki stopped in his walking. “Ahem--.” He cleared his throat and looked at him deadpan. “Stark. I am about to heal your injury and ask nothing in return. It may cause some discomfort.”

“God, you’re such an ass…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :3
> 
> ((HAD TO EDIT. FOrgot a chunk of the chapter.))


	25. Chapter 25

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Loki introspection and more Bucky woes.
> 
> :)

Re-introducing Bucky and Steve was a slow process. It only took two more tries of the group letting them both talk for Tony to see what was going on. Bucky’s body was reacting to a conditioned response. He wasn’t entirely sure what, but the scans JARVIS had of his body showed his muscles clenching and positioning himself defensively. He was expecting something to hurt him for some reason. Tony really wished he knew what Hydra did to him to make such a powerful reaction.

On their third try getting the two reacquainted, Loki stood up and snapped his fingers, knocking Bucky out immediately. Steve tried to protest, but Loki ignored him and stepped outside onto the balcony. The others all just watched him, nobody moving to go follow. 

After being outside for a brief moment, Loki was surrounded by a blinding bright light. The rainbow bridge touched down on the balcony, shimmered and flickered, and then vanished. In its place it left behind a lovely woman that Tony knew, but nobody else did. He quickly scrambled to his feet.

Unsure, Tony gave a very jerky bow of his head when Frigga walked into the room. She offered him a small smile and laughed at his movements. “Oh, no, please,” she said, holding up a hand. “I am not queen here.”

“Queen?” Steve pushed himself into a straight backed standing position and Bruce fidgeted and brushed off his jacket.

Tony beamed at them. “This is Loki’s mom!” He announced, waving a hand out in her direction. The others both looked nervous.

Frigga, for her part, only offered them both the same little smile she gave Tony, and followed Loki to Bucky’s side. Loki made a small gesture toward the sleeping man and grumbled something about healing.

Slowly, Frigga lowered her hands to Bucky’s forehead. She pressed the tips of her fingers to his temples and gently moved them across the flat plane on his head. She had closed her eyes and furrowed her brow in concentration. “He has… damaged memories,” she said after a moment. “His brain itself has been scarred… Mm.” Opening her eyes, she looked at her son. “Even with all of Asgard’s healers, we would not be able to bring back what was lost.”

Steve, drawing in a sharp breath, asked, “Does he remember me?”

Loki scowled at Steve, but Frigga only gave him a sad smile. “He does,” she said, voice quiet. “He does, but he remembers what they did to him if he started remembering.” She rubbed Bucky’s temple in slow circles. “Memories were lost. New ones put in…” She sighed. “They tried to change him.”

“What does that mean?”

“Someone else,” she said eventually. “They hoped to mold him into someone else, I think…” She let go of his head, brows creased. “My apologies. Even in sleep it is difficult for him to recall how it all started.”

“Is there anything you can do?” Tony asked then. “I know Loki wouldn’t have called for help if we didn’t need it.”

Frigga looked pleased to hear him say that, and she nodded. “Yes,” she answered, sending Loki a little smirk. Loki turned his head away. “Yes, I can help ease his pain… Lessen his immediate fear when he sees you.” She looked to Steve. “I am sorry it isn’t much. Most of what ails him isn't physical.”

“I-it’s okay,” Steve said. “Whatever you can do for him, I… I’d appreciate it.”

Frigga nodded and set to work. Her hands glowed a soft yellow as she rubbed Bucky’s head. “I shall do my best to heal the injuries to his person, as well,” she said. “It will not bring back his memory, but it will give him space for new ones…”

She stood there for what felt like hours. Hands glowing and eyes closed. As she worked, Tony kept glancing over at the others. Steve looked like he was going to faint with the anxiety of the situation, Bruce looked both concerned and fascinated, and Loki… Loki wasn’t even watching. Tony shrugged at that. This was his mom, he was probably used to seeing her do magic shit.

When Frigga finally stepped back, Steve all but jumped to Bucky’s side again. “Give him a bit more time to rest,” she told him. “Healing takes time and energy.”

“Of course,” Steve whispered. “Thank you…”

Frigga simply nodded and turned back toward the balcony. Loki followed behind her and Tony followed behind him. (Bruce stayed with Steve.)

As she stood out in the open air, Frigga chuckled lightly. “Thor is not going to be happy when he hears that _you_ called for me, Loki.” She turned and grinned as she chastised her son.

Loki huffed. “She’s right, though,” Tony said, smirking when Loki scowled at him. “Last time you saw him, he thought you were dying.”

Loki looked like he wanted to say something in response to that, but he just kept his mouth shut. Frigga walked over to his side and gently rested her hand against the side of his face. All the fight seemed to fade out of him and his shoulders slumped. He raised his own hand and held hers in place.

“I know about Odin,” Loki said after a moment.

“Then why have you not come home?”

He shook his head the tiniest amount, not jostling her hand away. “It’s not that simple,” he said, voice soft.

“It could be,” Frigga said. “You know that your brother and I would welcome you back with open arms.”

And that brought the fight back. Loki pulled away from her and turned away. “Yes,” he whispered, “Yes, but would anyone else?” He didn’t look at his mother again as he spoke. “Truthfully- would even Heimdall be willing to accept my return?”

“Loki…”

“Don’t _lie_ to me, mother,” Loki pleaded, hands clenched into fists at his side. “I’ve heard enough to last a lifetime…” 

* * *

Things were tense for a while after that. Frigga returned to Asgard and Loki stayed in the tower to help with Bucky’s recovery. Thor came by the next day just to see Loki and to hug his brother. Loki didn’t return the hug, but he didn’t push him away either. Overall it just looked uncomfortable for both parties.

Thor had left saying the same things his mother had said, and Loki had disappeared from the tower with hardly more than an “I’ll be back.”

Bruce had watched him leave and whispered to Tony, “I had no idea their family situation was so… weird.”

Nodding, Tony said, “You should have been there to see it on Asgard. Loki and Thor actually seemed to be getting on okay until Thor’s friends showed up.”

“Brought back bad blood, I take it?”

“Yeah,” Tony sighed. “Thousands of years of it.” He pouted toward the railing. “Loki was so upset about it, he never brought back my sandwich.”

A spluttering laugh bubbled out of Bruce and he gave Tony a few pats on the back. “Yeah, that’s it, Tony- I’m sure if you bring that up it’ll make him forget all about this.”

“Hey, you never know! If you annoy someone enough you can make them do anything!”

Bruce rolled his eyes. “Let me know how that works for ya.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tony will never forget that sandwich
> 
> \-- hey! This story just surpassed my oldest fic on AO3 for most hits ever!!  
> Now that's something special if you ask me!
> 
> Man.... my most hits were on a Hobbit fanfiction for close to 4 years... wow.


	26. Chapter 26

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bucky has bad memories--- how will this lead to Tony's parents? We will find out.
> 
> Loki is a little shit, as usual, and Rhodey....

It had taken about a week before Bucky finally let Steve walk him around part of the tower. He didn’t go anywhere besides the main floor, but it was progress. He was starting to trust them.

He finally introduced himself to Tony and to Bruce, too. He said his name was Bucky Barnes and he was Steve’s best friend. “We… we grew up together,” Bucky had said, seeming to remember it just then himself. A small smile spread across his face as a memory came back to him. “Steve was such a tiny kid.”

Every time Bucky talked it looked like Cap was going to cry his eyes out to Tony. It was definitely emotional for him to have his best friend back.

It took two weeks before Bucky sat down and talked about what had happened to him. Bruce took notes while he spoke. According to Bucky, every time he disobeyed or began to remember his old life, they had hurt him. It was fuzzy, he said, but he remembered having to bite down on something so he didn’t scream too loudly.

“I… I remember having to kill people,” he said. “They made me… I… I remember their faces, but…” He shook his head after that. “There were just so many… Their names all blend together after a while.” A bitter laugh left his mouth after that. “You could probably give me a date and a time and I could tell you if I killed a man or a woman and how old they were, but if you asked me for their names I wouldn’t remember.”

“Well, you’re still healing,” Bruce supplied, “You may never remember. That’s just part of the process. The human brain can’t remember every detail.”

Steve, resting a hand on Bucky’s knee, said, “You’re gonna be okay, Buck.”

* * *

Tony had taken a vacation for a couple days. Well, more of a ‘staycation’ really. He just went down a few floors in the tower and told the others to call if they needed him. Being surrounded by psychiatrists and doctors was making his head swim. He needed a break.

As he lounged in a random room on what would have been Hawkeye’s personal floor if he ever used it, Tony for once wasn’t surprised when he had a visitor.

“You’ve forgotten the energy signature, haven’t you?”

Sighing, Tony turned his head to frown at Loki. “You do it on purpose, don’t you? You sneak up on everybody like that or did you just pick me because it’s more fun?”

Shrugging, Loki waltzed further into the room and swiped the drink from Tony’s hand. “Usually you’re more fun than _this_ ,” he said before knocking back the glass and downing Tony’s scotch.

“I _was_ drinking that, you know.”

Humming, Loki turned the glass back and forth in his hand. “Mm, yes, and I was finishing it.” Tony rolled his eyes and got up to get himself a new drink.

“Anyway, what energy signature?” He got a new glass for himself a poured. He held the bottle toward Loki, silently offering him some more. The god came over after a moment and held out the glass that previously was Tony’s.

Sipping, Loki replied, “The energy signature that brought me back to your abode in the first place.” When Tony continued to look confused, Loki groaned. “You were in the middle of eating a _sandwich_ when you registered it?”

“Oh yeah!” Tony shouted, pointing at Loki’s face. “You murdered my perfectly good sandwich!” Loki was looking at him like he was the biggest idiot in the universe, but Tony continued on. Looking up, sticking his lower lip out in a dramatic pout, he whispered, “My beautiful sandwich… He was so young…”

When he feigned a sniffle and a sob in mourning over his sandwich, Tony actually managed to make Loki laugh. (He would never admit how proud he was of that.)

“I will have to remember this,” Loki said, swirling his drink around, “You are so food driven, perhaps I can train you like a dog.”

Tony smirked. “Good luck,” he said, “People have been trying to train me since the day I was born.” He took a small sip of his drink before stopping and asking, “If I were a dog, do you think I’d be a big dog or a little dog?”

“Miniscule.”

“Hey!” Tony swatted at Loki’s glass for that, but missed. “You didn’t even pretend to think about that!” He slumped and sighed when Loki laughed again, frowning into his glass. After a minute of quiet he finally asked, “Okay, so what energy signature are you talking about?”

Loki, barely waving his hand, summoned up a Starkpad. Tony almost made a comment about it, but just watched as Loki scrolled through things on it in silence. Finally he pulled up what he needed and passed the tablet over to Tony. “This reading,” he said. “Your 'satellites' picked up a distant energy signature.”

“Oh yeah,” Tony hummed, “Forgot about that…”

“Yes, I’m aware. Either way, the energy it picked up was from another of the Infinity Stones,” Loki said, pointing to the big spike on the page. “It is very faint, which means it was several thousand planets away, but the reading is there.”

Tony frowned. “So wouldn’t that also mean this energy signature could have been years and years old? Since it’s so far away?”

Loki shook his head. “At most, it is several months to a year old. The stones produce powerful energy. I’m certain the force of it caused it to travel faster.”

“Yeesh… And to think, just two and a half years ago the weirdest thing coming from space was you,” Tony huffed, running his hand over his face.

Loki chose to ignore that comment. “It is alarming that the stones are being found and awoken so close in time to each other,” he said, “and I am sure this is a bad sign.”

“You never know,” Tony said, “It might be a good thing! More people having the stones right now might make it so the Big Bad doesn’t get them later!”

“Big Bad?” Loki raised a brow at him and cocked his head.

Tony rolled his wrist as he responded. “Thor told me a bit about the stones already… He talked about them being super powerful and said if someone got their hands on all six they could destroy everything and shit.” He looked at Loki then. “I’m just going off a hunch, but I gather there’s some big baddie out there who would love to get his hands on these things.”

Loki looked away from him. His jaw was clearly clenched tight, Tony could see the muscles pull, and his shoulders were rigid. He eventually let out a low chuckle, shaking his head. “You were able to figure all that out just from a story that Thor told you…” He gave Tony a pained smile after that. “Your kind do not realize just how much they need you…”

Tony put his hand over his heart. “That is the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me, Reindeer Games!” He laughed when Loki rolled his eyes at him. “And anyway, it wasn’t all Thor… I kind of figured it out when you said you didn’t want to rule our planet and you just wanted to be alone.” Loki looked surprised that he remembered that. “Hey, it was only like a year ago and just because I’m not a god, doesn’t mean I’m an idiot. I happen to be a genius here on Earth.”

“More proof that you are underutilized,” Loki said, taking one last drink before setting his glass aside.

“You’re just not used to having someone actually listen to the bullshit that comes out of your mouth, aren’tchya?” Tony teased, deflecting from the compliment.

“Mm, no,” Loki replied, “More-so that you actually _believed_ it.”

Tony frowned at that, but stayed quiet for a bit. Self-deprecation… Not something he would expect from someone as dramatic and haughty as Loki. The guy normally oozed confidence. Hearing him sound like… Well, like _him_ was weird for Tony. He didn’t like it.

“Bucky’s doing better, since you didn’t ask.”

Loki blinked a couple of times, turning his head back to look around the room. Looks like he finally realized they were completely alone. “Oh,” he mumbled, finally looking back at Tony.

“Your mom knows her shit,” Tony said, smiling. Loki smiled too and nodded his head. “Is she just better at healing magic than you are? Was that why you called her for help?”

Another nod from Loki. “Mother taught me everything she knew, and I was a gifted student,” Tony rolled his eyes with a smirk at the bragging, “But there are still areas that require a more delicate hand than I have.”

“Well, you were able to heal my arm the other day.”

“Physical ailments are vastly different than mental,” Loki said, “And my experiences with delving into another’s mind have been mostly… unpleasant.”

“Oh,” Tony exhaled gently. He understood now. Loki probably could have healed Bucky himself, but he had been worried he’d just make it worse.

* * *

Rhodey coming to visit had been such a surprise for Tony that he had actually cried when he stepped out of the elevator. He ran to him, threw his arms around him, and cried out, “Rhodey-bear!”

Rhodey squeezed him back just as tightly. “Hey Tones,” he said.

“What are you doing here?” Tony asked, still grinning from ear to ear. “You didn’t tell me you were coming! Hell, even JARVIS didn’t tell me!”

“I was requested that I keep it a secret, sir,” JARVIS said.

“Well it was one damn good secret,” Tony laughed, hugging his friend again. “Oh, speaking of secrets, now that you’re here we have a secret that you have to keep.”

“Oh lord,” Rhodey groaned. “Let me guess, Loki’s back?”

Tony had been walking away from him, but paused then and turned back, holding up two fingers. “Okay, two secrets.”

“ _Tony!_ ” Rhodey shouted, rushing after him when Tony began sprinting away. “Tony what the fuck!”

As soon as he rounded the corner after his friend, Rhodey stopped running. He stopped completely, actually as he saw the room and the people in it. A man with a metal arm sitting on a couch next to Captain America.

Slowly taking a few steps into the room, Rhodey whispered, “Steve?”

Looking up, Steve was clearly startled by the visit, and he glanced at Tony for a second before looking back at Rhodey. “Ah, um… Hi again,” he said eventually.

Finally making it closer to the couch, Rhodey asked, “Jesus, man, where the hell have you been? You look like shit.”

The man beside Steve laughed quietly at that and said, “I told you no one would like the beard.”

“I think it looks nice,” Tony said. Rhodey leveled him with a hard stare and he shut up again. He was probably mad that Tony hadn’t told him about Steve being back… Reasonable.

Steve lifted the metal arm a fraction and motioned to his friend. “This is Bucky Barnes,” he told Rhodey, “My… my best friend…” Rhodey didn’t say anything, just stood and listened. “I, uh… I found out that Hydra had… had taken him and that-that he was still alive.” He gave a small, bitter laugh, and whispered, “I kind of went off the deep end, I guess.”

“You went looking for him.”

Steve nodded. “Yeah… Yeah, once I heard he was alive, I basically dropped everything to go and find him.” He looked up at Rhodey then, eyes sad. “I should have given more warning, I know… I know I just up and left you guys and Fury and all the efforts we were making to-to fix things, but…”

“It’s okay,” Rhodey said, holding up a hand. “You don’t have to explain anything to me.” He turned his head and looked over at Tony with a sad smile that his best friend knew all too well meant he was thinking about Afghanistan.

“I did the same thing once before.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rhodey and Tony are the absolute best duo in the MCU, I'm sorry I don't make the rules.  
> They love each other and I just want them to both be happy.


	27. Chapter 27

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guess what? I didn't forget about Steven Strange!! Can you believe it!?

Bucky was improving… slowly. Tony still had therapists and specialists coming to see the damaged man all the time. He had been looking up as much as he could and eventually found a very big neurologist named Steven Strange living in New York City. It looked like he specialized in surgery on the brain, but maybe he would be open to talking about the scarring on Bucky’s brain. He could see if Bucky would be willing to get an X-Ray and then maybe show them to the guy.

  
“If my mother’s magic cannot heal him, what makes you think a mortal man can?”

  
Tony sighed loudly. “Loki, if you’re gonna hover over my shoulder, the least you could do is announce yourself like Rhodey does.” Rhodey laughed from where he was before coming over to ruffle Tony’s hair. “See? Like that.”

  
Loki didn’t really move from where he was standing. “It’s more fun to watch you jump,” he said.

  
“And anyway,” Tony huffed, “I want to get his opinion. He’s done some pretty crazy procedures on patients that other people thought were hopeless cases. Even if he can’t do anything, I think it might be good to talk to him.”

  
After a second, Loki turned his head. “What is your opinion on this, James?”

  
“Oh, God, don’t call him that,” Tony groaned, spinning his chair around.

  
“It is his name.”

  
“Call him Rhodey. Everyone else does.”

  
Loki looked back at the Colonel. “Which would you prefer?”

  
“Honestly, either one is fine, I’m just enjoying watching you two piss each other off.” Rhodey was grinning at them, leaning against the wall as casually as anything. “This is fun.”

  
“He’s Rhodey,” Tony said, “Even Steve calls him Rhodey.”

  
“All the more reason for one of us to be proper, then,” Loki argued.

  
Eventually Tony gave up. Throwing his hands in the air, he turned back around. “Fuck, fine, whatever, I’m too tired for this.” He began typing up an email to send to Strange, hopeful that maybe he would actually answer. Judging from the videos and interviews the guy had online, he was a bit like Tony was before the whole Iron Man incident… I.E. an asshole.

  
He had only gotten about halfway through his email when suddenly he found himself being shoved aside and next to Rhodey by Loki. The god had jumped forward out of nowhere, summoning a dagger to his hand, and had the two of them pressed against the wall behind him. He pushed backward hard, and before Tony could even squawk at the treatment, JARVIS’s alarms were going off.

  
“Sir, there is an intruder.”

  
“A sorcerer,” Loki hissed, keeping pressure against the two of them so they could not move. 

  
The three of them heard a voice respond to Loki then. “You must be very skilled to have sensed me before I even arrived.” The voice sounded female. Soft. Accented. And Tony was barely able to turn his head enough to see a bald woman step into the room through some strange orange portal. “I’m impressed,” she said.

  
Loki didn’t return the compliment, only further tightened his defensive stance. “Can’t breathe, Reindeer,” Tony gasped after a second. Loki shifted, glancing back at him, and stepped forward enough that Tony was able to take in a deep breath.

  
“My apologies,” the woman said, “I did not want to have to come here.” Tony frowned at that, raising an eyebrow. “But you are meddling in things you shouldn’t and I cannot sit back anymore.”

  
“What’s going on?” Rhodey asked, staring her down. “Why are you here?”

  
The woman sighed after a moment. “Steven Strange,” she said. “Steven Strange needs to live his life uninterrupted by the Avengers for three more years.”

  
“What? Why?”

  
“You have an Infinity Stone,” Loki’s statement startled Tony. “Not with you,” Loki said, “But you’ve used it… There are traces on you.”

  
She nodded. “Yes. You know it as the Time Stone,” she told them, “And you’ve already seen what happens when someone tries to replicate what it can do.”

  
It only took a second before Tony knew what she meant. His hand went up to his reactor and he spoke quietly. “You mean the other me…? The-the one from the future?”

  
She nodded again. “Your counterparts have split our universes,” she said. “This is not how things were supposed to go. None of this is how it was meant to be.” She waved her hand and an image projected in front of her. The image was of Loki, holding the Tesseract. “You were never supposed to get away,” she said, looking at the god, “And you were never supposed to join this team.”

  
“Aw, too bad,” Loki snarked, grinning.

  
“Several things that were meant to happen have not,” she continued, ignoring him, “Stark was meant to create a machine, Bruce Banner was meant to disappear into the cosmos, and beings that were meant to exist now do not.”

  
“Are they important?” Tony asked.

  
“They were… But now it’s too late.” She walked over to Tony’s computer screens then, looking at his email to Steven Strange. “But we still have time for Steven Strange.” Tony hit Loki’s arm five times before the god finally lowered it and let him walk over to her side. Once he was by her side, the woman looked at him. She was taller than him, damnit. Why was he so short!?

  
“I’m going to die,” she said, smiling sadly. Tony blinked at her nonchalance. She didn’t even seem to care. “In three years and seven months, I’m going to die. And when I die, there will need to be someone to watch over the Time Stone.”

  
“You could give it to us?” Rhodey offered.

  
She shook her head. “No,” she said, “There must be a sorcerer supreme. To protect the Earth and teach new generations.” She began deleting the email, eyes looking sad. “Steven Strange will be the best of us… He must be allowed to take his place.”

  
Everyone was quiet until she completely got rid of the message. Once it was done, Tony spoke. “What do we have to do?” He asked.

  
“Leave him,” she answered, “Leave him be. In three years he will have an accident, though not the one he was originally supposed to have, and he will find our order… He may approach you or one of your doctors, but you must turn him away.” She didn’t look happy to be saying it, but she said it anyway. “He needs to suffer before he can learn to change.”

  
“Okay… Okay, fine… We’ll leave him the way he is.”

  
“Good. That’s all I can ask for,” she said. “Take care of yourself, Tony Stark. You have more friends on your side now than you were ever supposed to. Use that to your advantage.” And with that, an orange portal opened up behind her and she stepped through and disappeared.

  
Things were quiet for a second before Tony shouted, “Did she just say I wasn’t supposed to have any friends!? What the fuck!?!”

  
Rhodey and Loki both laughed.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hehehe, Tony has no friends. :)
> 
>  
> 
> ((Computer didn't register the line breaks, so I had to manually fix that. Ugh..))


	28. Chapter 28

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> seasonal depression~  
> seasonal depression~  
> I live in a sunless void~  
> It's f*cking cold outside~

Tony and Rhodey were watching a movie, both stuffing handfuls of popcorn into their faces. Steve was walking around outside with Bucky and trying to get him used to the outside world again. Loki went with them to use magic so they wouldn’t be seen and Bruce was meditating, trying to keep an increasingly antsy Hulk at bay in his mind. He had said lately it was starting to feel like Hulk was waking up. Like he suddenly became aware and wanted to take a turn at the wheel. He went to the Hulk-proof room six hours ago.

The movie was absolutely awful. But neither of them really cared. They just wanted to hang out and relax after all of the crazy time travel shit going on in their lives. Fucking sorcerers from New York City coming to interrogate them. What was next?

“So you and Loki been hangin’ out a lot?” Rhodey asked out of the blue, popping a few of Tony’s kernels into his mouth.

Frowning, Tony thought about it for a second. “No,” he said eventually, “No, not really… He’s been here like… a week maybe? Week and a half? He keeps to himself mostly, except when he wants to scare me, I think…” He turned his head, cocking it slightly.

Rhodey shrugged a bit then. “Kinda surprising.”

“How so?”

“Well I just mean, you saw him,” Rhodey motioned his hand outward vaguely, “When the crazy magic bald lady showed up he went all ‘Mama Bear’ and jumped up to protect us before we even knew there was a _threat_.” He took another handful. “Doesn’t seem like the type to protect people he doesn’t like, ya know?”

Tony frowned harder. “I guess I didn’t even think about it.” Loki really had jumped up to protect them, hadn’t he? Fuck- that was weird. It didn’t seem like he did more than tolerate Tony, but… “Ugh, now I’m gonna be over-analyzing things for the rest of the week.” Rhodey snorted at that and tossed his popcorn in his face.

“We both know you’re just gonna blurt it out the next time you see him, so let’s stop lying, kay?”

Tony sighed. “Yeah, you’re right.”

* * *

When the three men returned to the tower, Steve led Bucky to a separate room almost immediately. He hardly said a word, just hurried him somewhere else. Tony pouted at that.

Looking at Loki, he asked, “What’s that all about?”

The mage sighed. “There were children shooting a,” he rolled his wrist a few times, looking like he was trying to think of the word. Eventually he settled on, “A toy gun- and Barnes reacted negatively to the sound coupled with the children’s laughter.”

“Weird combo to upset him,” Tony mumbled, looking back toward where the two had went. “Oh, speaking of upsetting,” he turned back again.

Loki paused where he was, clearly halfway to leaving the room. When he stopped, he leaned against the corner of the wall and waited.

“That bald sorcerer lady,” Tony began, “How come you tried to keep her away from me?” Loki’s brows creased as he said that, so Tony quickly said, “Not that I don’t appreciate it, it’s just weird to have you protecting me when less than three years ago you threw me out a window.”

Loki looked irritated. He had dropped his gaze as Tony had continued talking, but his jaw was tense and his brows were drawn together. He was quiet for a while. So long in fact, Tony thought at first he had overstepped and the alien god crazy man wouldn’t answer. Eventually, though, he said, “You do not have seidr… You and James would have been excruciatingly vulnerable to any attack she may have planned.”

Tony nodded, humming a little. “Makes sense,” he said.

“And once I sensed the approach of another Infinity Stone,” Loki huffed. “I suppose I reacted on instinct.”

“That makes even more sense,” Tony laughed a little bit, “Those things have caused so much shit already.” He grinned at him. “Thanks, Rudolph.” Loki looked mildly peeved by the name, but didn’t say anything. “Now I get to tell Rhodey he was wrong! He seemed to think you did it because you _like_ me! Ha! Can you imagine!?”

With a small chuckle, Loki spoke. “Where would he get an idea like that?”

“That’s what I said!”

* * *

It was finally December. The terrible Christmas music was playing nonstop on every radio station but one, the commercials were nauseatingly jolly, and Pepper had already stopped by and hung up stockings and a few decorations on Tony’s floor of the tower.

It was disgusting.

Which was why Tony was currently hanging tinsel and ornaments on a tree on the main floor where everyone always seemed to gather.

Bruce and Steve were helping him. Eric Selvig was back in the tower and was in the kitchen baking something that smelled suspiciously peppermint-y. And Rhodey and Bucky were sitting on the couch with a cup of cocoa each, watching them. Loki hadn’t been up at all that morning.

“It’s nice to see you in the spirit, Tony,” Bruce said, smiling and handing over an awful, gaudy Iron Man ornament. “I’m sure this time of year isn’t easy for you… With your parents and all.”

The second he had said it, Rhodey had sat up straight, ready to jump up. Tony noticed. He put out a hand, trying to calm him. “It’s all right, Platypus,” he said. “My therapist’s been helping me.” He looked back at Bruce and smiled bitterly. “I think this might be the first year I don’t end up drinking myself straight through December sixteenth and into the seventeenth.”

“Is… is that when they… when they died?” Bucky asked, voice quiet, timid almost.

Tony nodded. “They were on their way to the airport. Car wrecked… I… don’t really like to talk about it much.”

Bucky frowned into his cup. “How old were you?” he asked, looking back up.

“Just old enough that it was perfectly legal for him to drink himself near to death because of it,” Rhodey hissed. He bit his lower lip, rubbing his hand against his eyes, holding back tears. “Fuck…” He exhaled slowly. “Fuck, that first year was the hardest…”

“Rhodes…”

“I thought you were gonna die, Tony!” Rhodey shouted that at him now, eyes shining. “You know I promised to take care of you and I thought I was gonna lose you!”

Blinking in surprise, Tony stepped off his ladder. “You… who did you promise…? It sure wasn’t Howard. He wouldn’t _care_ if I—“

“I promised my mom.”

Tony blinked again. “Oh…” He remembered Rhodey’s mom always being kind to him. She had acted like he was her kid just as much as Rhodey was. Even yelled at him enough for it to really feel true. “Your mom made you promise to take care of me?”

“She and I could both see a stupid little white boy who didn’t know his left from his right underneath all that ‘genius’ you have.” He used air quotes on that word, smiling.

“Aw, Rhodes.” And then there was hugging. And crying. And more hugging.

Bucky had gotten up during the affair and left the room in a hurry. Steve had followed after him a few minutes later, when he didn’t come back.

Tony and Rhodey were still in a partial hug when Steve came back out into the room. “Uh, Tony…?” Tony looked up at him. “Uh… Bucky, um… Bucky wants to talk to you… alone…”

“Alone?” That was a surprise.

Nodding, Steve said, “He said he doesn’t even want me in there… I… I think it’s gotta be something important.”

It took a moment before Tony got up and let Steve lead him to the room Bucky had tucked himself into. He was sitting on the bed in the room, staring at a spot on the floor. Gently, Tony closed the door behind him and pulled the chair for reading over near the bed. He sat there quietly, just waiting to see if Bucky actually decided he really did want to talk.

Four whole minutes later, Bucky finally looked at him. He looked sad… scared…

“Everything all right?” Tony asked, offering an out.

Bucky shook his head at his question, only just slightly. “No, I… Your- your parents… What did they look like?”

“I could have Jay bring up a picture of them. Hang on,” he took out his phone, loading up a photo of them from two years before the accident. “Here…”

Taking the phone, Bucky’s hand was visibly shaking. He swallowed audibly as he looked at them. “Oh God.” The shaking worsened. “Oh God, no.” He ended up dropping the phone, raising his hands up to hide his face.

Now it was Tony’s turn to swallow. Lowering his head a little bit, he tried to see Bucky’s face. “Buck…? What, uh… what is it?” He already had an inkling, but fuck, he hoped he was wrong.

“Oh God, Tony, I killed them!” Bucky shouted, not moving his hands. “It wasn’t an accident! They told me to make it look like one! Oh God, I shot their car!”

Tony flinched back away from him, scrambling to his feet.

“I killed- I- Fuck!” He was shaking terribly. “You’re trying to help me and I- I fu- I killed… God, Tony, I’m sorry. They made me! Fuck, they made me!”

“I-I need to be alone,” was all Tony said before rushing out of the room. As he ran to the elevator, he told the others, “Let him know I’m not angry, I- I just- I need to go. I have to- I need to be alone.”

“Tony?”

“I need to be alone!” He shrieked, slamming the door close button and collapsing to the floor of the elevator. The little box was on lockdown. It stopped him mid floor and would not move for anyone. He stayed there for three hours, just trying to remember how to breathe.

Eventually… “J- Jay?”

“Yes, sir…”

“Did… did we know?” He asked, looking at the ceiling. “Did we know about this…?”

“Do you mean was it in SHIELD’S archives, sir?”

“Yes.” He hated how small his voice sounded.

JARVIS was quiet for a moment. “I’m afraid sir that yes, the file was there. But it was in my programming to filter out files containing the words “Howard Stark” and forward them to Miss Potts to read through before sending to you. As per your own request, sir.”

Of course. Tony had to laugh. Of fucking course. He could have known a year ago that Steve’s old best friend had killed his parents. He could have known a year ago that their death wasn’t really an accident. Maybe then he could have made a better decision. Maybe he wouldn’t have let Bucky in here. No… No, it wasn’t Bucky. Hydra tortured him. He knew that. Fuck, he knew what Hydra did to him. They had to call a queen from space to try and heal him- he knew it wasn’t Bucky’s fault.

He wanted so badly to be mad at him, though. He wanted to blame him. Just one person to blame for this. Just one person to say, “This is your fault! Why didn’t you tell me?” But he did. Bucky did tell him. He told him and felt so bad about it that he was probably having a panic attack up there.

God, he really was pathetic. If his mom could see him now… He had stopped himself from learning the truth because he was still so angry at Howard. If he had just grown the fuck up and been an adult about this…

“Fuck… Jay, don’t forward that file to Pep. Or if you already did, go in and get rid of it.”

“Yes, sir. Miss Potts has only viewed the first ten files during her free time, it seems.”

“Good… You know what, just stop forwarding them to her altogether,” he said, “She doesn’t deserve to have me shoving my daddy issues at her.”

“Of course sir… Shall I tell her why you are no longer sending them to her?”

“I… I guess… Just… wait a few days.” In the small space his voice sounded so… big. Encompassing. It was like he could feel his own voice in the tiny space. “Just until I get used to this.”

He had leaned his head back and closed his eyes, just trying to relax, when the sound of someone clearing their throat startled him out of it. Blinking in surprise, Tony looked a little lower and found he was no longer alone inside the elevator. He smiled a little bit. “Hey Lokes,” he said. “Rhodey send you?”

Loki huffed. “You seem to have sent the others into a frenzy,” he said, arms folded. “Banner is in the padded room again.”

Trying not to cry-laugh, Tony began pushing himself back to his feet. “You didn’t have to come check on me… But I appreciate it.”

“James has promised to throttle you until you give him an override on your return,” Loki said, turning to flick his fingers at the buttons on the control panel. A small green spark and they were moving back up to the floor they were on before.

“Yeah,” Tony exhaled, “I think I deserve that one.”

When the doors finally opened, Tony was promptly hugged and then shaken like a rag doll.

He took it in stride.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> happy birthday Loki- December 17th


	29. Chapter 29

Even after Rhodey hugged him for an hour straight, Tony still needed a little time alone. He went to his lab and worked on Stark Industries projects for hours. Bruce came down to see him at one point, brought him a sandwich and some pretzels, and then left again. Steve came by once to ask him if he was ready to see them, Bucky was worried and wanted to apologize.

“I… Not yet, Cap. I’m… I’m not. Well, I _am_ mad, but I know it’s not his fault. I just need time, ya know?” He offered a pathetic attempt at a smile and smeared grease across his forehead when he wiped sweat away. Steve seemed hesitant, but nodded and slowly made his way out of the room.

He took the time while he was alone to send files, prototypes and specs to Pepper for the company. He digitally signed a few documents for her and sent off agreements for some pre-approved budgets. Absently he ate some of the food Bruce brought down, working away on it. And even though the crazy bald lady had told him to leave Stephen Strange alone, he still checked up on news of the man every now and then. The guy was still a world-renowned surgeon. No accidents yet. God, what a weird feeling that must be. To know what’s going to happen all the time… Maybe it was useful for some things, but he preferred a little bit of mystery in his life. Or at least less paranoia.

It only became clear that he had been in the room for an entire day when Bruce came back down with new food, telling him he had missed breakfast and Thor had sent them a letter.

“What’s the letter say?” Tony asked, taking the bowl of soup Bruce gave him.

Bruce sighed. “His dad’s officially in the sleep thing, he said. Like, officially officially. His mom said she can feel it. He’s going to be out for a long while.”

“Guess we won’t be seeing much of him then, huh?”

“He still wants Loki to come back up,” Bruce said, holding the letter out. “Said he wanted us to try and convince him.”

Tony barked out a sarcastic laugh. “Haha, yeah, okay. Like _that’s_ gonna happen.” He slurped his soup loudly, grinning when Bruce made a face at him. “Seriously, Bruce, I fought with the guy. If his mom can’t make him do it, then there’s basically nobody who can.”

Bruce laughed, smiling. “Hard to believe it, huh? Loki tried to take over the world and he’s a momma’s boy.”

Shrugging, Tony took the letter from him. “His mom’s fucking awesome- can’t blame him.”

“She definitely seemed very… regal.”

“It’s like she can tell everything about you just by lookin’ atchya,” Tony said, motioning out, fingers spread. He yanked his hand into a fist and pulled it back in close. “Like she can see your fuckin soul and just has all this knowledge.”

“Well, you did say there was a huge library there. Maybe she was a bookworm.”

“Oh, fuck yeah! The library! Jane’s gotta be like a kid at candyland up there with that place! I know I was.” Tony was beaming now, not really even paying attention to the letter anymore.

“I’d love to read some of the books they have,” Bruce said, sighing.

“Some of them were in languages I’d never seen in my life.”

* * *

Christmas was… weird, to say the least. Even before they exchanged gifts, Tony requested Heimdall beam up a bundle of presents for the others on Asgard. He chalked that one onto the ever growing list of weird things in his life.

They made a big breakfast, which Tony actually ate, and JARVIS called everyone to the main room once everything was ready.

Tony and Rhodey gave each other garish, gaudy, ugly sweaters which they each promptly put on, and then took about twenty selfies in. Tony sent some to Pepper, and she sent back a photo of herself with her family. She looked cute.

Bruce’s gift from Tony was a shirt that he had designed to stretch and stretch without ripping. It made him laugh and he said, “I’m sure Hulk will hate it if I ever end up changing in it.”

“Good enough for me,” Tony said, smirking.

He had given Selvig a bunch of gourmet coffees and fancy books on astrology. He was happiest with the coffee.

When Loki came into the room he found Steve helping Bucky put on a sweater Tony had ordered for him. It had one sleeve, so that his metal arm wouldn’t catch on it and rip it. “Steve, I can dress myself,” Bucky said, lightly pushing him away.

“You can help me with mine,” Steve said back, tugging the sweater into place. “Would that be enough payback?”

Bucky smiled at him. “Not payback unless your sweater is as bad as Tony’s.”

“Oh it is,” Tony beamed. “It’s spangled and sparkled and bedazzled to hell.”

“Perfect.” And Bucky proceeded to forcibly yank the woolen monstrosity over Steve’s head. It was a holiday nightmare.

Loki went into the kitchen, got a plate of food, and came back out to watch the shenanigans. “Do you guys celebrate any holidays up in god land?” Tony asked him, not so subtly hiding a box behind his back.

“If you’ve gifted me one of those jumpers I will burn it,” Loki warned, munching on a piece of bacon Tony had managed to not get too charred.

“Rude,” Tony huffed. “But no, I didn’t get you one like that.” Loki only raised a brow and kept eating. Even when Tony held out the box to him, he kept eating. “You’re supposed to open it.”

“Oh, I know,” Loki replied, walking away and sitting down to eat. Rhodey snorted at that, grinning when Tony stuck his tongue out at him.

“I can’t believe you’re taking his side,” Tony pouted, “You’re the one who told me I should’ve let him bleed out during the whole elf thing!”

Loki gave Rhodey a curious look after that, but Rhodey didn’t really seem bothered. “Oh, trust me, you’re still on my list,” he told the god, “It’s just nice to see somebody else give Tony a taste of his own medicine.”

“Oh, save it,” Tony huffed. “You like Loki better than you like me at this point.”

“Yeah, maybe a little.”

“Rhodey!” Tony groped at his own chest, falling dramatically to his knees. “I’m hurt!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> happy new year!!!!!!!!!!!


	30. Chapter 30

Loki had left the next day. Didn’t tell anybody, didn’t leave a note about how long he would be gone, didn’t do anything. Tony only found out when he found the present he had given Loki, still perfectly wrapped, sitting on the island in the kitchen on the main floor. He had huffed unhappily at it and picked the box up, marching over to the room Loki had been sleeping in. When he knocked and got no answer, JARVIS told him Loki had left at two thirteen that morning, abruptly.

“What an ass,” Tony huffed. “I got him a gift and he doesn’t even open it.” Grumbling for a minute, Tony forced the door open and went into the room. Aside from a pile of books on and around the desk in the room, it looked like no one had ever been in there. It caught him off guard. Standing in the doorway, a dumb look on his face, Tony took in the still tucked-in bed, the fluffy pristine pillows, and the decorative towel still folded on the bed in the shape of a dog. His cleaning staff had done that the last time he had them go through the building over two weeks ago.

“Jay… was Loki actually sleeping in here? It all looks the same as when he first showed his face again…”

JARVIS replied quickly. “Yes, sir. I have video footage if you would like to review it.”

“Then how come it looks so clean?” He set the box on the bed with a frown. The pillows didn’t even have any dents in them. It genuinely looked like they hadn’t been used.

“I would assume it was magic, sir,” JARVIS said, “My records indicate a small energy spike just before Loki’s exit.”

“Oh…” Tony flipped open one of the books on the desk. Runes. He couldn’t read runes. Ugh. “So he basically cleaned up after himself before he took off?”

“It would appear so, sir.”

And wasn’t that a treat? Tony had to sit on the bed and process that for a minute. _Nobody_ cleaned up after themselves around here. Even Pepper would sometimes forget to throw a plate away and she was the queen of clean! It was weird to think that someone wasn’t just leaving the mess to his cleaning staff. Or to _him_. Believe it or not, Tony did sometimes clean up when he couldn’t keep looking at the machines in his shop. He sometimes needed a different mindless task and cleaning was easy and gave good results fast. He had started cleaning more since the start of his therapy sessions.

Thor hadn’t even cleaned up after himself like this! Sure, Thor sometimes helped pick up, especially when Jane scolded him for making a mess, but never like this. Wasn’t Loki a prince, too? He must have had servants to clean up after him back on Asgard.

Tony stood up, putting a hand to his head.

“Oh, God, Jarv, I need better house guests. I’m having a crisis over someone actually cleaning up their own mess.”

“Shall I call an ambulance, sir?” If he didn’t know better, Tony would say JARVIS sounded like he was teasing him.

“Ha ha, very funny Jay.” Tony left after that, leaving the box on Loki’s bed with a note that said, “Open me, you asshole.”

* * *

Tony was still uncomfortable being alone with Bucky.

When others were in the room it was fine. He could trust Bucky not to snap if other people were around and he could trust himself not to break.

But being alone with him? No. Tony couldn’t do that yet. He had been talking to his therapist about it and it turns out he wasn’t just uncomfortable with Bucky, he was uncomfortable with Steve too. He had been halfway through a tear filled rant that Steve had known and never told him when he realized it.

“You’re holding onto a lot,” his therapist had said, “Some of it you may not even be aware of. It’s going to take time to heal.”

And wasn’t that the truth?

It was a new year and he was still shaken from the discovery and all that happened.

Any time he was feeling nervous or jittery about it he would contact Rhodey or Pepper, or if they weren’t available he would go to his parents’ grave, or if he was feeling really sentimental he would check up on Harley Keener. The kid was doing a lot better in school now. Less bullying and more friends who wanted to build things with him.

Bruce and Selvig had been working together to develop a container that could hold the Infinity Stones. The tesseract was easy as far as they remembered. Fury’s case to carry it had just been slightly modified foam. They made a nice big case for it out of that. Thor had taken the Ether and put it into a weird space rock and took it to Asgard. He had said it would be safe in their vaults. The mind stone was the tricky one. So far the only metals it didn’t eat through were Thor’s hammer and Vibranium. Which, of course, right? Why not just pick the most expensive and hard to obtain material on the planet?

Tony had joined the two of them in trying to get through to Wakanda. The largest Vibranium deposit in the world was supposedly there, but they were notorious for not letting anyone or anything in or out of their country. He had hoped being famous would help him, but so far he was having basically no luck.

Fury had resurfaced just enough to send Tony an encrypted email saying Hyrda was slowly being dealt with and that was it. When Tony tried to respond he got hit with the classic “this address no longer exists” problem. So he gave up and figured Fury would find him if he needed.

“Do you think maybe Wakanda would listen to royalty?” Selvig suggested one afternoon. Bruce and Tony both gave him confused looks. “Well, I just think. They still have a monarchy over there. And we’ve got direct access to Thor and to the queen of Asgard. If they won’t open up for us, maybe they would open up for one of them?”

“That’s a damn good idea,” Tony said, quickly working up a big package to send to the royal family of Wakanda. King T’Chaka and his family may not trust rich white American idiots like Tony but maybe they would trust crazy powerful space alien royalty.

It was worth a shot.

When Wakanda had answered back with skepticism, Tony couldn’t really blame them. But they _had answered_ which was more than they had gotten in days. He suggested that they could meet with them some time in a neutral location and discuss what they needed to discuss.

Calling out to Heimdall later was a bit iffier. Tony said he needed either Thor or the queen. He didn’t really care which one, he just needed assistance with something. He had honestly expected Thor. But when the rainbow bridge opened up and dropped off the Queen of Asgard he realized he probably should have just said Thor. It felt weird pulling her away from her husband.

Before he could even apologize for that, though, Frigga was raising a hand and telling him Thor and the healers were tending to Odin. “Heimdall informed me that you had need of a diplomatic hand.”

Tony sighed, “Yeah… See, we’ve got a problem with the Mind Stone.” He showed her pictures of some samples it ate through as he led her inside. “It’s melting everything we put it on. The only stuff it hasn’t damaged has been Thor’s hammer and Vibranium.”

Frigga hummed softly as he showed her the photos. “The Uru used to craft Thor’s weapon is exceedingly hard to acquire,” she said, “The Dwarves do not part with it easily.”

“Yeah, I kind of figured some crazy space metal wasn’t going to be easy to get. That’s why I wanted to get Vibranium. It’s here on Earth.”

Now Frigga looked a little confused. “Then what need do you have of me?”

“Well, the people who have all of Earth’s Vibranium… Their king doesn’t wanna talk to anybody. Mentioning you and Thor finally got us a little bit of wiggle room, but he doesn’t wanna talk unless it’s to someone like you, I think.” Bruce’s theory was that T’Chaka didn’t trust them simply because of Tony and his history and honestly Tony would not put that past him. He had done a lot of shitty things in his past.

After a moment of quiet, Frigga requested someone bring her the mind stone and whatever it was encased in. She said she would talk with the king and show him exactly what was needed and why.

* * *

It took an entire day before King T’Chaka finally agreed to a video call. He answered and the first thing he said was he would only speak to Queen Frigga and no one else. “All others must leave this room,” he ordered, used to ruling and being obeyed without question. Tony left without a word.

Frigga was on the phone with him for over three hours. When she finally exited the room, her face was calm.

“Well?” Bruce asked, standing up from where he had been sitting.

“How’d it go?”

A small smile crept across Frigga’s face. “He has agreed to send a very small amount of your metal to you for the sole purpose of containing the stone.” She turned to Tony then and said, “My apologies, dear boy, but I had to demonstrate the nearly corrosive properties of the stone to him. I believe your table will need to be replaced.”

Tony barked out a laugh at that and before he thought better of it, pulled Frigga into a hug. The loud gasps from Selvig and Bruce were what clued him in to the fact that he was being completely stupid.

He jumped back and apologized. Frigga, though she looked startled for a moment, had only laughed and patted him on the shoulder. “Thor has been telling me stories about you these past months,” she said, smiling, “And he did say you were a bit of a ‘hugger.’”

“Sorry.”

“It’s quite all right,” Frigga told him. And then she asked the question Tony had hoped she wouldn’t ask. “Where is Loki?” Tony wanted to melt into the floor then. “I have not sensed him since my arrival yesterday. Is he here?”

“No,” Selvig answered for him. “Loki’s been gone for almost a week now. We don’t know where he’s gone or why.” And Frigga looked sad at that. So much so that Tony almost went to hug her again.

“Has he been up to Asgard recently?” Bruce asked, looking at her with big sympathetic eyes.

She shook her head slightly.

“Well,” Tony stepped forward, trying to lighten the mood a bit, “From what he told me, he does still want to come and see _you_ , but he doesn’t think people will want to see _him_.”

His words had the opposite impact he was hoping for. Frigga seemed to droop even more and look even more heartbroken. Tony felt like an asshole now.

She was quiet for a while. When she did speak, her voice was hardly more than a whisper. “Odin and I did wrong by him… Oh…” She put her hands to her forehead, clearly upset. “I should have never let him… If I had been stronger, perhaps things would be different.”

“What’s that mean?” Tony asked.

Frigga shook her head and straightened her back. “I’m sorry. I don’t need to be bringing Asgard’s problems here to you.” She cleared her throat and began walking toward one of the balconies. “Your metal will be arriving shortly. Use it well. I am certain we will be in touch.”

Then the Bifrost opened and she was gone. And none of them had any idea what to do.

“What do you think she meant?” Tony asked, looking at the other two.

“No idea,” Selvig answered, “But if I were you, I would _not_ try asking Loki about it. You’re likely to get your tongue cut out.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wah wah, sad trombone noise
> 
> loki leaves again and no one knows where he went
> 
> tony makes Frigga sad
> 
> will there ever be an end to the sadness


	31. Chapter 31

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I meant to write this like a week ago, but then I got rejected for a job and got too depressed to finish it...  
> So, I finished it now that I've had a good day.

The vibranium arrived two days later with a message addressed to Frigga. Tony didn’t open it. He just took it out onto the balcony and let Heimdall know he could take it whenever he wanted.

Bruce was currently not Bruce in his padded room. He had gotten up in the middle of the night, walked past Tony eating an ice cream sandwich on the couch in his insomnia, muttered something about Hulk driving him crazy, and hadn’t been seen since.

So, Tony was building the case for the mind stone by himself. Selvig had gone out with Steve and Bucky to a library nearby. Bucky was going to read up on all the history he missed and Selvig was going to secretly flirt with the librarian. Tony knew, but he decided to let the man pretend to be going there to do research.

Being alone in the tower was what he was used to. He had the bots, but even with them it was quiet. Beeps and thuds and the occasional clatter of something being knocked over. He didn’t want to turn his music on in case Bruce needed him or in case Hulk broke out. So he worked in the quiet.

After a long while, he finished the case for the stone. He purposely shaped it to look like a brain once it closed. Perfect.

But after finishing that, Tony didn’t really have much to do. He ended up getting distracted from his work each time he tried to start something new. Eventually he just went up to his bedroom and took a nap. He woke up at two in the morning with a real hankering for chocolate ice cream. He didn’t have any and he didn’t feel like going out to buy any, and that was how Tony ended up sitting on the floor, making ice cream for himself at two-thirty in the morning with the small ice cream maker Pepper had bought him once as a joke.

He sat on his couch, eating directly out of the little mixing ball thing, and watched his television. He texted Rhodey a few times, not surprised when he responded. He was apparently in Pakistan right now, working with some politicians who were fucking up relations. His poor Platypus worked so hard.

Smirking, he teased and texted, “Want me to come over there and help you de-stress?” With a winky face.

Rhodey immediately wrote back, “If you try, I will punch you in the dick.”

“Kinky,” Was Tony’s reply.

* * *

Pouting to himself, Tony flipped through the books on Loki’s desk. There wasn’t a single one he could read. One of them was even clearly written by hand and he still couldn’t decipher the language.

“Would you like me to attempt to analyze the pages, sir?” JARVIS suggested.

Sighing, Tony said, “No, don’t do that, Jay… I wanted to snoop, but that feels like going too far… What if this is like his diary or something, you know?” He paused on a couple pages with sketches, but he didn’t recognize the plants in the pictures.

“Statistically, I find that unlikely, sir.”

“Hey, you don’t know! They might have kept diaries in crazy god space land!” He closed the book, making a bit of a face. “Of course, Thor never mentioned anything like that or seemed like the type to keep a diary or even the type to read books, but you never know.” He frowned a little to himself. Yeesh, Thor and Loki really were different weren’t they? In the time that Loki was in the tower, there had not been a single destroyed electrical appliance. No exploded toasters, no ruined hair dryers, nothing. But when Thor was there he enthusiastically joined in game nights and had fun with the others and didn’t sneak up on Tony on purpose. (He seriously needed to talk with Loki about that the next time he came back. His heart couldn’t take much more of Loki’s silent footsteps.)

After his little snooping mission, Tony went back into the main penthouse and nearly tripped when he saw Steve and Bucky. The two men were both wearing aprons and the cutesy oven mitts that Pepper had bought for them. He was very tempted to pull out his phone and take a picture.

“Uh… hey guys…” He carefully started walking again.

Steve, of course, beamed at him. “Hi Tony!”

“What’s uh…. Whatchya doing?” Tony asked, glancing into the kitchen where something was clearly cooking in the oven.

“Baking,” Bucky answered, not looking at him. Instead he was flexing his hands inside the pig shaped mitt on his left hand.

Steve nodded. “Bucky’s therapists suggested he try something domestic to help relax him.”

“Domestic…”

“It’s just regimented enough that it satisfies the need for order,” Steve explained, sounding like he had memorized a script, “You have to follow the directions or it won’t turn out right.”

Rubbing the back of his neck, Tony looked at them. Clearly they were waiting for the timer. “Okay,” he sighed, “But are the aprons necessary?” At the frown on Steve’s face, he said, “It’s just a really weird thing to walk in and see two dudes big enough to bench press a mountain in frilly aprons.”

Steve only shrugged. Bucky eventually said, “We’re making brownies… If you want some…”

“Uh… Maybe,” Tony gave in after a second of processing. “I’ve uh… I’ve got some work to do, so…” He started to scurry away but Steve stopped him.

“You don’t have to be afraid any more Tony! Everything’s fine! Bucky is doing better!”

His back felt tense as he turned to look at them. “It’s…” He clenched and unclenched his fists. “I’m not afraid,” he said, “I just… Steve, you _knew_ didn’t you? About my parents?”

Steve looked flabbergasted. He stuttered and stammered for a minute before he managed a full sentence. “I-I jus- Natasha- she- she showed me files. She said she found Bucky’s name in- in Shield’s- I didn’t- it wasn’t like I planned to see what happened!”

“Nat knew?” Tony asked, feeling shocked, then angry at himself for feeling that way. She was a spy. Why did he expect her to be decent to him?

“When Shield fell apart with all this HYDRA stuff… she… we were looking through as many files as we could that had more information on Bucky… After that picture of him… The scientists… I had to know.” Steve huffed unhappily and looked down at his knees. “I didn’t know enough about the new computers, so I asked her to help me… and we… She found- I found- we- we- I just…”

Tony wanted to hit something as he spoke. Did this mean that Fury knew too? He obviously must have had agents looking at all those files. Fuck, how many people had known about his parents before he did? He was over forty fucking years old now and he just found out what really happened to them. To think he could have known two years ago. Fuck. He hated spies. He hated secrets.

“I should have told you,” Steve finally said, “I just… When I found out Bucky might be alive, I just got tunnel vision.”

He fell quiet after that. With a sigh, Tony nodded. “All right… all right… I guess…. I… Thanks, Cap… That helps… a little… I’ll be up later to try a brownie.”

* * *

Tony had proudly displayed his brain case to Bruce the next day. Bruce had audibly laughed when he opened it. “Of course you would take one of the most expensive materials on the planet and make it into a tiny brain,” he said, wiping at his eyes.

“I think it’s fitting,” he said, smiling.

Bruce shook his head with another laugh. “Only you, Tony…” He looked at the glowing stone inside for a moment. “Should we make something fancier for the Tesseract?”

Tony scoffed. “Yeah, like Loki’s gonna give us back his favorite toy.”

“Maybe if we make the case something funny?”

“We can try,” Tony grinned, setting down the brain. They had already made a foam lined briefcase, but now they began construction on what surely would be a glorious foam creation.

* * *

Tony wasn’t even sure what time it was. He was just sitting on the couch with a circuit board in the dark. He and Bruce had worked together during the day, so it must have been night time by this point. He wasn’t sure, though. Maybe it was just really early in the morning.

He was halfway through popping a piece off the board when he heard a loud thumping noise and then the distinct noise of feet stumbling on the floor. Lifting his head, he called out gently, “Jay, lights?”

The room quickly illuminated with a soft, warm, dim light. Tony peeked over the couch and saw the source of the noise. “Loki?” He knelt up higher on his haunches. “You all right?”

The god appeared to be bent over himself, leaning hard against the wall. Tony was pretty sure there was a dent in the drywall. He swallowed a lump when he saw that Loki was wearing the helmet from the invasion and tried not to remember fingers around his throat.

When Loki didn’t answer, Tony tried again. “You don’t look good, Bambi.”

Loki made a low grunting noise, pushing himself up the wall a bit. “I’m _fine_ ,” he bit out in a clipped voice.

Tony nodded slowly. He obviously wanted to ask where Loki had been and what he had done to get himself hurt, but the irritated growl to his voice told him maybe it wasn’t the best time. Instead he said, “Your mom stopped by.”

“Stark,” Loki hissed out, visibly wincing and doubling back over a little bit.

“Do you want me to call a doctor or something?”

Loki snarled at him. “What I want, is for you to shut your mouth.” Tony did, but continued to peek over the couch at him. He couldn’t tell in the low light, but he was pretty sure Loki was bleeding. Definitely did something to get himself hurt.

After a couple of minutes of heavy breathing, Loki stood up straight. He cleared his throat and adjusted his… leather… coat… thing. Was it a trenchcoat? Tony wasn’t really sure what to call it.

Loki turned and started walking toward his room down the hall and as he walked, Tony called, “Gonna go take a nap?”

Loki did not answer him.

* * *

The next morning, or well, that same morning but just later, Tony and Bruce were making breakfast together. Bruce was telling him about how he had actually been communicating with Hulk lately. They had started writing to each other on the walls of the Hulk room. They were actually trying to work things out between them. It was exciting and Tony hoped something would come from it.

Mid pancake flip, Tony let out an excited little squeal that made Bruce drop his mug of tea on the floor. Immediately he apologized. “Shit, sorry Bruce,” he started reaching for paper towels.

“No need for that,” Loki’s voice startled Bruce again, who had been squatting to pick up the shattered ceramic pieces. He looked up at the god and with hardly more than a flick of a finger, the previously shattered mug reformed itself right on the floor. The spilled tea remained in a puddle, though. Loki made a noise and then that disappeared, too.

Tony paused, staring down at the mug. “Hmm. Guess I gotta make new tea.”

Bruce stood up with the cup. “What the hell was that about anyway, Tony?” He set it on the counter and started going through the cabinets.

“Oh yeah!” Tony spun back around and stuck his arms out toward Loki. Grinning from ear to ear, he said, “He opened it!”

Bruce paused his search to look. There Loki stood, a brand new green and silver scarf partially wrapped, partially hanging, around his neck. He couldn’t stop himself from smiling when he noticed the snake emblem at the bottom. “Is that from Harry Potter?”

“Slytherin!!” Tony squealed. “Come on, Loki and _snakes!?_ Tell me it isn’t perfect!”

Bruce laughed and shook his head. Loki only raised a brow at him and moved forward to set the sticky note, previously on his Christmas present, onto the counter.

“Like my note?” Tony asked, still smiling.

Loki ignored his question and walked back the way he came. Probably back to his room.

“I’m not even mad,” Tony said, “Made my morning, if you ask me.”

“You had that little scarf inside that big box?”

“The scarf was custom made to be six feet long! It needed a box!”

* * *

The team did a movie night. It honestly sucked.

They had tried to watch an old classic, but Bucky had left after a fight scene triggered a panic attack, Steve following him, and Loki left when there was an unexpected rape scene. Both Bruce and Tony had been startled as well. “Jay, has this movie always had that scene in it?”

“Yes, sir, it has.”

Tony groaned, running his hand over his face. “Okay, so next time let’s run the movie through a database to see if it has possible triggers for anyone.”

Bruce looked up at Tony. “Yeah, probably a good decision.”

“I swear, the last time I watched this, I don’t remember that scene being in there at all.”

“How drunk were you when you last watched it?”

“Good point,” Tony huffed, walking to Loki’s room. He knocked a couple times on the door, got no answer, and said, “Sorry Lokes, I didn’t realize the movie had that in it.”

To his surprise, Loki opened the door a crack then. He looked kind of pissed, actually. Tony worried for a second that he was angry at _him._ But instead of saying something mean to him, Loki said, “Men who behaved that way on Asgard were put to death.” Tony blinked in surprise. “If you could not gain your lover genuinely you were considered beastly and not deserving of the right to continue breathing.”

“Woah.”

“I did not realize just how engrained it was in me,” Loki said, “I.. apologize for leaving without explaining myself.”

“No, no, it’s fine,” Tony quickly said, waving his hand. “We don’t like that stuff here on Earth, either. You didn’t even have to tell me any of that and I still would have understood you leaving.” Loki nodded silently and then closed the door again.

Tony turned and walked away, sighing loudly and rubbing his neck. “Worst movie night ever…”

“I’m afraid I have to agree, sir,” JARVIS said.

* * *

It was late. Again… Tony really needed to do something about his insomnia. Therapy wasn’t helping.

He was sitting out on the giant balcony with a bowl of cereal. He had eaten half of it before it got soggy. Now it sat in his lap. He had the spoon in his hand, absently tapping it on the floor. He heard the noise of the door opening and closing and turned his head a little to look.

“Hey Lokes,” Tony called. Loki started walking toward him. “Still upset about the movie?”

“No,” he replied. “Are you?”

Tony hummed and shook his head no. Loki moved to sit beside him and Tony let him, putting his spoon back into the bowl. After sitting in the quiet, hearing the cars driving stories below them, he asked a question he had been wondering for a while. “Are you ever going to tell us about what happened to you? The stuff ‘after you fell’ like Thor said?”

Loki scoffed at him. “I haven’t even told Thor, what makes you think I would tell _you_?”

Tony shrugged. “You came back… Here, I mean.” He motioned toward the tower. “I figured you were leaving for good, or if you ever came back to earth, you’d go do your own thing. You kinda seem like a free spirit… But you came back here. I figure that’s gotta count for something, right?”

The look on Loki’s face could only be described as uncomfortable.

“Plus,” Tony said, smiling and nudging Loki with his shoulder, “You opened my present.”

Loki looked confused for a minute before he blinked and smirked a little bit. In one second the scarf Tony had custom ordered for him was around his neck. He lifted the end, looking at the snake on the fabric.

“It’s from a children’s book series,” Tony told him. “It’s about witches and wizards.” Loki’s smile grew a little bit and he made a face at him. “And it’s green, so I thought it would be right up your alley.”

“I don’t think it will do much to keep out the cold,” Loki said, looking at the stitching.

Tony huffed. “Would you have preferred an ugly sweater like Steve?”

“I told you I would burn it if you had.”

“You know what I just realized?” Tony turned toward Loki, ignoring the milk that spilled on his sweats. “I never told you about basketball!”

Loki huffed at him. “Is this from the conversation where you were telling me how attractive Heimdall is to you?”

“No!” Tony pouted. “I only talked about him for a little while!”

“I distinctly remember you telling me how ‘hot’ you found him.”

“You’re _all_ hot!” Tony whined, throwing his arms out. “That was the point I was trying to make! Literally _every person_ in Asgard was fucking hot!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> they're friends now
> 
> LMAO WOOPS I JUST REALIZED THOR TOOK THE MIND STONE  
> in like chapter 17 I had him take the mind stone instead of the ether. oops... I'll fix that and switch things around, if I can.


End file.
